Tron:Absolution
by Macs
Summary: With four hundred dollars on the line, two sisters set out to settle a bet and end up in a place more incredible and dangerous then they could have ever imagined. Set post Tron:Legacy. Now with 10% more running! Seriously it's getting ridiculous. COMPLETE
1. If You Care To Take A Dare

Greetings Users! Having watched Tron:Legacy, I found myself bitten by the writing bug. Thus, Tron:Absolution was created. If you, dear reader, would be kind enough to drop me a review on my story, tell me what's good, bad and ugly, then I'd be extremely grateful. Cheers!

PS: **DISCLAIMER BE HERE: I own only the OC's and plot, the rest goes to the great and wonderful Disney.**

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Hannah Harrison adjusted the little model Delorean on her windowsill and looked around her room with a contented sigh. After two days of pushing, pulling, procrastinating and occasional collapsing in exhaustion, she was finally settled down in her new place. It was her first time living on her own, having moved out of the house she shared with her parents and older sister. This was her first taste of real freedom, and responsibility (which she'd probably get her family to help her with). She revelled for a while in the new paint smell.

The freshly whitewashed walls looked tan under the sepia streetlights outside. It felt like being inside a 19th century photo. The whole building was old, part of a project to reinvigorate the area, which had been mostly derelict for nearly two decades.

All in all, you couldn't really call the scheme a success. Less than half the apartments in her block were being rented, and many of the other blocks in the area had done worse. It didn't take a genius to figure out why, there was nothing around. There were no shops, no services, no movie theaters, just rows and rows of cheap housing and some weird old building called Flynn's; which looked so haunted it was unreal. Her dad had stared at it a little too long, then quickly named it the Scooby Doo shop when he'd popped down for a visit.

Quietly content with her work, Hannah wandered over to her bedroom and flopped face first onto her bed, landing with a satisfying 'whump'. Curling up, she didn't even bother to undress before rolling the covers over her, snuggling in and falling asleep.

* * *

At two in the morning, Jessie Harrison had been asleep for three hours. At five past two, she was awake, and patting the duvet around her, trying to find her phone. Still half asleep she finally answered with a groggy "Humgluh?"

"Jessie? Are you there? Hello-" At the sound of her sister's voice, she sat up, rubbing her eyes and clearing her throat.

"Hannah? – Jesus kid, it's- "she glanced at her clock, but her sleep filled eyes blurred the numbers. "-stupid o'clock in the morning. What the hell are you doing up?"

"Jessie! Jessie you've got to see this! I-I think my place is haunted! Seriously, everything's going haywire, and the building opposite me is doing the same. The lights are going and my TV won't shut off...Bring food."

Jessie winced as her little sister jabbered at a million miles a minute. She grabbed her jeans from off of the floor and started pulling them on.

"Don't move, I'm coming to get you. Don't touch any sockets." She said. She grabbed her bra from the day before and put it on.

"Okay, I'll get drinks. You're right; I'm not going to touch the fridge though. Is Coke okay? I got diet. It'll be warm though." There was a muffled clunk in the back ground. "Damn walls," Hannah muttered.

"Sure thing, I'll be over in a minute. Keep yourself safe."

"Will do. Don't make me wait."

Jessie hung up and slumped back, pulling on a pair of socks she'd found under her bed. Hannah had lasted ten hours away from home without calling her. A small smile crept onto her face. It was nice to know she still needed her older sister, even if she was a little farther away. Big Sister to the rescue!

* * *

It took ten minutes for Jessie to drive to the apartment and she pounded up the stairs to the second floor, the bag of chips she'd grabbed rustling loudly as she went. She was surprised to see that a lot of the lights in the street were flickering, the streetlights, the apartment's lights and even the old 'Flynn's' sign was flickering. Eighties music boomed loudly from the interior. She listened to the faint strains of Journey until she was at Hannah's door. Her baby sister wasn't kidding.

"Hey, I got chips and Oreos. Open up!" She shouted, knocking with her free hand. The door was open before she'd finished talking and she was engulfed by a flying leap of a hug.

"Thanks for coming." Hannah extracted herself from her sister.

"Sure thing kiddo, but you know I can't just leave you hanging. It's a genetic thing remember? Looking after you is coded in as quite a high priority." She grinned. Hannah ran back inside and jumped onto a chair in the hallway. It squeaked on the hardwood floor as it slid under her weight.

"Did you see it? You saw it didn't you, you had too. It's happening outside, inside, everywhere, is it happening everywhere? I can't tell, I can't get the news anywhere. The electrics are going crazy! My computer turned itself on, but it didn't load up. It didn't even blue screen me; it's just on, humming away in the corner. Same with the TV, it's chugging away, but you can't find a channel. It just keeps showing black. Sometimes it flashes static, but I don't know if I'm imagining it, it catches a light that's been reflected outside or anything and I'm really -"

"Shut up!" Jessie said, punching her lightly in the arm. "You're going to give me an aneurism. Talk slowly or don't talk at all."

"Right, yeah." Hannah nodded.

"Now take a breath."

"Okay, done,"

"And start again."

"I think that this whole street is haunted." Hannah said, completely sincere.

"Uh huh." Jessie said sceptically. "and you don't think twenty one is a bit old to be believing in ghosts? Did UFO's zap the power grid too? Or has Skynet taken over the world? You think we'll see a Terminator down there sometime soon?" She laughed. "Oh, wait, I know! The CIA and the FBI have joined forces to fight the Transformers, and then the guy who shot JFK from the grassy knoll-"

"Alright, I get it. Bad idea." Hannah slumped back in the chair sullenly. Jessie threw the cookies at her and opened the chips herself.

"I know you get hungry when you're thinking too hard." She teased.

"Shut up," Hannah said, stuffing a cookie in her mouth. "I'm just freaked out."

"I get that. You're talking about ghosts for god's sake." Jessie wandered into the bedroom and sat on Hannah's bed. The room was lit by candle light. Good girl, thought Jessie. Hannah followed her, dragging her chair behind her. "You'll scrape the floor doing that."

"It's all scratched to hell anyway," Hannah said, grabbing another Oreo. "Oh, coke! I'll grab a can."

"Make sure mine's diet!" Jessie shouted to her.

"Yeah!"

Jessie put her feet up in the bed and cursed when her shoes left a muddy circle on the sheets. Tucking it away, she hid it before Hannah came back and threw her a drink.

"So everything's on, but you can't use it? Like the TV?" she said quickly.

"Yeah, that's what I said. There's just these random flashes of white. I thought I saw some shapes in it for a while, but then I stopped catching them because I was looking at the computer."

"Weird." Jessie sipped her drink thoughtfully. "Hey, do you think all the machines are on at Flynn's?" She said with a grin. Hannah cocked her head.

"I guess. What's even in the Scooby Doo shop anyway?" she mused. Jessie snorted.

"Oh yeah, I guess you're a bit young to know. Flynn was the guy who owned Encom-"

"Everyone knows that." Hannah interrupted.

"Yeah- but he owned an arcade too, that one out there. It had the best machines this side of the river, people used to come for miles to have a go. Dad used to go there when he was in his twenties and he said you'd get these golden tickets sometimes; and if you did you got the rest of the night free, as many goes as you wanted on any machine. Dad got one once and spent the whole night on Tron. What a nerd."

"So there are arcade games? That's all?"

"No way! There's so much more than that," Jessie said knowingly. "Didn't you ever hear the rumours? Kevin Flynn goes missing, says he's going to the office and never comes home. Leaves his kid an orphan, Encom stock drops for a bit, yadda yadda yadda."

"That's not exactly a rumour," Hannah deadpanned. Jessie rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, because that isn't it. That's the backstory to this sordid little play. You see, before all that, Flynn was going a bit nuts. You were probably too young to remember and people don't really talk about it now; or maybe Encom covers it up," her eyes glinted in the candle light. "So, here's where this rumour comes in."

"What is it?" Hannah leant forwards as Jessie whispered conspiratorially,

"They say Flynn never went to the office. They say he went to the arcade that night and when he got there, he was murdered. Whoever did it hid his body in the basement." Jessie grinned wildly.

"Who killed him?"

"Who knows?" Jessie said with a shrug. "But I've got my theory. He had this friend, Alan Bradley, who had a huge number of shares in Encom. Probably thought he was next in line if Flynn disappeared, so, he follows him, kills him, and waits for the money to roll in. Thing he doesn't know is that Flynn junior is running the show now as majority shareholder. Bradley just stays on the board of directors and all he achieved was getting rid of a nut bucket." She finished. Hannah sat back, taking it in.

"I guess that makes some kind of sense. Still, he would have known he didn't have the majority of shares," Hannah speculated. Jessie snorted.

"You know what they say though. You should always be wary of those closest to you. I think Bradley did him in, if not for the money then because he was getting as nutty as a fruitcake."

Hannah slurped her drink and ate another cookie. The hallway lights flickered outside her door.

"So you think his body is in the basement?" she mused.

"Yeah. Where else do you hide bodies?" Jessie said knowingly.

"I'm sure the police would have checked in there, if there is even a basement."

"They wouldn't know where to look if the body was hidden well enough. Secret entrance to the basement." Jessie told her.

"Why a secret entrance? Why not just stick a lock on the door and a sign saying 'no entry'?" Hannah countered. Jessie took a long drink.

"Secret entrance to a secret project. It's a proven fact nerds always operate out of basements."

"That's the best you can do?"

"Hell yeah. The man was crazy, of course he had some secret thing somewhere and where would no one ever look? While everyone's busy checking out Encom, Flynn's secret base is really under the arcade, mouldering away like mould on cheese. I bet you fifty - no, a hundred bucks Flynn's got a secret basement down there with a secret project inside it." She snapped her fingers suddenly. "I've got it! Bradley killed him for the project!"

"I thought he did it for the money?"

"Yeah, well, I changed my mind." Jessie munched on some chips. She held one up to the candle light. "Ew, a green one. You can have that." She flicked it across the room and it bounced harmlessly off of the wall.

"I don't want that one." She threw a cookie at Jessie. "Have that one."

"Fine by me. So that's the gossip." Jessie munched on the cookie. "Hey, maybe your ghost is Flynn!" she joked.

"I didn't mean it about the ghosts. You've got to admit this is weird though. The whole grid's flickering like a faulty light bulb."

"Probably some idiots messing around with it for a laugh. It'll stop sometime."

They sat watching the candle light for a while, watching the strange shapes and shadows they made on the walls.

"It's the kind of thing you'd have done once, this power grid thing." Hannah said.

"Nah, I'd never done anything this big. Besides, i was more into hacking things than physical stuff like this."

"Yeah, I remember the time you hacked into Debbie Wanamaker's bank account and changed it all to Australian Dollars. I've never seen someone so confused."

"I told you, that was Darrell, not me. If you're going to say something like that, at least tell me a story about something I actually did." Hannah raised an eyebrow.

"So I shouldn't bring up the porn you ordered to the principal's office?"

"That was Shane,"

"Or the time you put a virus in the library computer?"

"That was Evelyn."

"Or how about -"

"Just shut it," Jessie snapped moodily.

"Just checking." Hannah slurped the last of her drink loudly. "Oh, and for the record, I'd take your bet and you'd lose faster than you lost at paintball." Hannah said with a smirk.

"What?" Jessie growled.

"You heard me," Hannah was laughing now. "I'd take your hundred dollars easy, because that bet is just stupid. Secret entrance to a secret basement? You're more likely to be America's Next Top Model than _that _is to be true."

"Stupid huh? Stupid like thinking a ghost is causing a power surge?"

"Even stupider." Hannah said triumphantly. Jessie glared at the wall for a moment and then at the window. Blowing out the nearest candle, she launched herself off of the bed, spilling chips all over the floor.

"That's it, you're on. Grab your jacket." She strode out of the room. Hannah stared after her.

"What? I – Jessie!" Her front door slammed and Hannah had a sneaking feeling that, not for the first time in her life, her older sister was going to get her in big, big trouble.

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That's all for now! Please drop me a line to say how this is going. The more you review, the better I can do!


	2. I Wouldn't Do That If I Were You, Dave

Greetings Users! Just me again, hoping you enjoy reading this! **Disclaimer: I own nought but my OCs.**

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_"That's it, you're on. Grab your jacket." She strode out of the room. Hannah stared after her._

_"What? I – Jessie!" Her front door slammed and Hannah had a sneaking feeling that, not for the first time in her life, her older sister was going to get her in big, big trouble._

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It was a warm night, but Hannah was wrapped in a huge woolly jumper. She'd never been good with the cold. Jessie was staring determinedly into her pocket, rummaging for something Hannah was sure she wouldn't like. Sure enough, an ominous jangling filled the air and she groaned. Jessie looked up, her face red and her arms folded.

"One hundred dollars on the line here. Double or nothing if we find a secret door. Double _that_ if we find a hidden basement. Four hundred dollars if you're right, all you've got to do is follow me." She ground out. Hannah shook her head.

"Fine, whatever. Just get on with your highly illegal activities and I, as usual, won't tell mom and dad."

"Good girl. Now move so I can get to that padlock." It took fifteen minutes of fiddling, curse words and occasional ducking out of the sight of traffic before they got the first lock open. The front door was easy after that and soon they were in. Hannah looked at the welcome mat.

"Flynn's."

Jessie looked back at her incredulously. "Seriously kid, we're in Flynn's, what do you think the mat's gonna say, 'Welcome to Denny's'?" She was striding down the aisles, her hand brushing the thick plastic sheets covering the machines. Dust swirled in the air, thick and cloying.

Layla was booming out of the jukebox, drowning out the various bleeps, beeps and beats from fifty different tables. Jessie wondered what it was all still doing in Flynn's. The kid who owned it must have been stupid not to realise these pieces of crap were worth money. He was practically throwing away fifty grand.

It wasn't long before she spotted a familiar face under the wrapping.

"Hello-" she purred. She'd found Pacman. Throwing off the cover and coughing into the dust, she fumbled in her pocket for change. Hell, why not give the old thing a go? The secret basement, if there was one, and she was starting to think she might have been a little bit rash about all this, had been there twenty years. It could wait another five, no ten- maybe fifteen minutes-

"Jessie, come here a minute." Or not. Jessie huffed, leaving her quarter on the machine, silently promising she'd come back to it, and jogged to the back of the arcade.

Tron loomed ahead of her, flickering and buzzing in all its neon glory. She looked the machine up and down.

"Yup. It's Tron." She said simply. "You gonna give it a go or what?" She motioned at the protective plastic heaped on the floor. Hannah shook her head.

"I didn't do that. Someone else did. We're not the first people to get in here." She said, her eyes shining like she'd discovered a great clue to this mystery. Jessie barked out a terse laugh. Man, her sister could be so thick.

"Right, because that's more likely than say, someone forgetting put it over when they closed up shop, or it could have just fallen off. Judging by the smell I'd blame some kind of animal. Maybe it was rats." She looked back up at the swirling sign. "Because somehow, I'm pretty sure Tron isn't the key to all," She stopped midsentence. "Oh, but it is, isn't it." Hannah looked at her.

"I'm right?" Jessie didn't know why she looked so surprised.

"Well, that was the big thing, wasn't it?" she said slowly. She looked the machine up and down.

"What was?"

"Well, Kevin Flynn ran Encom, but he didn't always, right? He only got there because he was able to sue someone else out of the position. Right after that he comes up with Tron."

"How do you know so much?" Hannah asked, scuffing her toes along the floor.

"Darrell and Shane were obsessed with all this stuff. They had this whole saga set out with Flynn and Bradley, it had everything, passion, jealousy, money, scandal, they even thought that Flynn was in love with Bradley's wife. They got pretty into it, did loads of research."

"Oh," Hannah said. "So he stole the idea from that guy he sued?"

"Yeah, so whatever-his-name-was is left with nothing." Jessie started looking around the edges of the machine.

"So he gets mad, comes after Flynn for ruining him,"

"Meets him at the arcade, late one night," Jessie continued, a little breathless.

"And kills him for revenge!" Hannah slapped her fist into the palm of her hand.

"Hiding his body behind the secret entrance to the secret basement."Jessie finished. She pushed Tron aside and looked at the iron door behind it.

"No way." Hannah prodded the door, half expecting it be a figment of her imagination. The cold metal was real and swung open easily when she turned the handle.

"Hey, that's two hundred dollars." Hannah looked up at her sister.

"What?"

"I said, double or nothing if we find the door, and we found the door,"

Hannah frowned.

"No, you said double if you find the basement. We just found some random door, I only owe you two hundred if there's a basement, we could find anything back here."

"So, are you gonna pay me the hundred now, or do you want to try and prove me wrong?" Jessie challenged. Hannah looked at the half open door.

"Two hundred for the basement. I owe you four if-"

"Look, let's just see if there is a basement. That's two hundred up for grabs if this leads somewhere else."

"Right." Hannah went for the door handle again but Jessie got there first.

"I'll check for ghosts," she said with a smirk. Hannah scrubbed her hands over her face.

"Would you just drop that? Jeez," and with that they both went through the door. They only went a few feet when Jessie burst out laughing.

"Oh Hannah," she sang gleefully.

"Now what-" Hannah stopped and huffed. "Crap. Stairs,"

"Going down! Basement city here we come, and you're gonna owe me two hundred big ones," Jessie started to gallop down the stairs, taking them three at a time.

"Wait up! Jessie, if we end up in the sewers or something you are so dead!"

It didn't take long before they were confronted by another looming door. Jessie was staring hard at the key by the time Hannah caught up with her.

"You're right you know." Jessie said, her voice almost hypnotically calm.

"What?" Hannah puffed, trying to catch her breath from the mad dash down the stairs.

"Someone has been here recently. There's a hand print in the dust."

"I don't really want to find out. What if they're still in there, or what if you're right about Flynn?"

"That's not the point. This is huge. I mean, if Shane and Darrell could see this."

"Please Jessie, we've found the basement. I'll give you the two hundred. Let's just go."

"Oh for God's sake Hannah there won't be a body in there! It'll be something way cooler than that."

"No, Jessie, I don't want to find out,"

"Yes you do! If we don't find out now, it'll eat at us for the rest of our lives," Jessie said, not once taking her eyes off of the key. "It' just there, waiting for someone to discover it,"

"So let someone else, I don't want to. I've got a bad feeling about this," Hannah turned to go. "Are you coming?"

Her answer was the low creak of an opening door. Hannah crossed her arms, but Jessie didn't come back out. The door hung open like an invitation. She stamped her foot angrily and followed Jessie inside.

* * *

Inside was nothing like what Hannah had expected.

"This is it?" she said. Jessie was busy poking around near some sockets. "This pile of crap? I've probably got more power in my cell phone."

"I think I can get the power on here," Jessie said, ignoring her.

"You owe my four hundred bucks." Hannah countered, ignoring her right back.

"Yeah, minus the two hundred you owe me for finding the basement."

"Hey! That was part of the double or nothing, you can't just say I owe you two hundred and you owe me two hundred,"

"Well, if we both each other two hundred, let's just call it even,"

"What- That's not," Hannah tried to get her head around the math. "It's four hundred minus two hundred,"

"Minus the two hundred you owe me, two minus two is four, so we're even."

"No, wait," Hannah shook her head, "What? It's not two plus two; it's one times two times two minus two, so you owe me four,"

"No, you owe me two, minus two I owe you for the bet."

"But we didn't find a body,"

"Exactly,"

And with that, the room lit up. Hannah leapt away from the mouldy sofa she'd nearly sat on. Jessie was fiddling around with what looked like the main console.

"Hey Hannah, come check this out." She motioned over her shoulder for Hannah to come closer. Hannah took a look at the black screen. The tiny lines of white writing in the background were dwarfed by the large text box in the centre of the screen.

_Continue last command input?_

_Yes No_

"Oh wow," Jessie bit her lip. Then she hit the yes button. With a beep, she got a new box.

_Illegal command. Reload last legal parameters from file log?_

_Yes No_

"What's it doing?" Hannah asked. Jessie shushed her.

"This is radical," she breathed, hitting the yes key again.

_Finding path... ... ... ... ... Found._

_Activate laser?_

_Yes No  
_

"What?" Hannah looked around the room. "Laser? Like in James Bond or something?"

"Don't know until we push the yes button," Jessie said, her finger hovering over the button. Hannah grabbed her by the shoulder.

"What if it's dangerous, I don't want to be chopped up into little pieces in some old guy's weirdo secret basement lair."

"You make it sound like he's a super-villain or something. Nothing can possibly happen. If it did, we'd be finding pieces of the last guy who hit yes on the floor." Hannah glanced down nervously, but all she saw was dirt and footprints.

"Still," she said, something catching her eye, "It doesn't hurt to not touch things every now and then." She bent over and looked into the glass of some weird crosshair shaped thing. "Hey, do you think this is it?"

"What," Jessie turned away from the console.

"This thing here. It looks vaguely laser-ish. It's pointing right at you."

Jessie raised an eyebrow. "My previous point still stands. So what?"

"So, whatever it does," Hannah started to say.

"We'll just find out," Jessie declared and with one swift jab, she hit the _yes _key.

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**And that folks is chapter two. Please drop me a note to say what you think, the more you review, the better I can do!**


	3. City of the Dead

Greetings Users! Here's the next chapter, please drop me a review if you like it, or hey, tell me why you don't!

**Disclaimer: **If I owned this I'd be rich right now. I'm not, so I don't.

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"_Hey, do you think this is it?"_

"_What," Jessie turned away from the console._

"_This thing here. It looks vaguely laser-ish. It's pointing right at you." _

_Jessie raised an eyebrow. "My previous point still stands. So what?"_

"_So, whatever it does," Hannah started to say._

"_We'll just find out," Jessie declared and with one swift jab, she hit the yes key._

_

* * *

_

Hannah woke up on the floor. She blinked a few times, trying to orientate herself. She didn't remember falling down, or blacking out. She pushed herself up and shook her head. What the hell had happened?

She vaguely saw Jessie get up, look around and double take.

"Hey Han, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore." Jessie said, grabbing Hannah by the back of her jumper and hauled her to her feet. Considering that she was willowy thin, Jessie was much stronger than she looked.

"What the-?" Hannah looked around the room. "What did you _do_?"

"Hey, I didn't do anything. This isn't my fault."

"Sure as hell ain't mine," Hannah said to Jessie's back. Adrenaline pushed its way through her veins. The whole building was completely silent, the music from the jukebox, the sound of distant traffic, it was all gone. Around them everything was dark apart from some blue neon lights. The junk from the basement office had disappeared too, the mottled sofa had been replaced by another computer tower and the entire room was immaculate.

"This is unreal,"

"Yeah, now how do we turn it back?" Hannah demanded. Every second that passed in the room made her more nervous. Finally she hurtled over the few feet between her and the console and started jabbing at the screen. The blue lights shone back at her patronizingly. Jessie touched one of the walls. The deep blue surface was as smooth as glass.

"You making anything happen back there?" she called after a few minutes. Hannah grunted and kicked the computer. "That's a no then?" she muttered. Even with her hand resting against the wall she could see her fingers trembling. Considering she was freaked out by this, Hannah must be terrified. Her baby sister never was one for taking to new situations well.

"Nothing's working!" Jessie recognised the shrillness of her tone. It was the same as when she'd nearly had a panic attack the first time they'd gone paintballing.

"Damn," Turning from the wall, Jessie took a long breath. Big sister to the rescue. "Guess all there is to do then is take a look around." She said in the most cheerful, devil may care voice she could muster. "Who knows, maybe we just cleaned the world up or something. We'll get a medal for being the ultimate garbage women." Hannah didn't smile. Jessie pouted. "Come on kid, pep up. I bet there's some cool stuff outside if this is what it's like in here."

"Stop it. I'm twenty one years old, don't patronize me," Despite her words, she still relaxed a little. Jessie's chest lightened; crisis averted.

"Like I would do that to you," she said with a smirk. "I'll go up first. You follow me like a good little duckling," Jessie ruffled her sister's hair and turned on her heels, marching out of the door and thundering heavily back up the stairs.

"What do you think'll be up there now?" Hannah asked, puffing behind her sister as she did her best to keep up. In the back of her mind she was cursing her lack of fitness and love of Oreos.

"I dunno," Jessie said. "Maybe the streets will be covered in gold and the rivers will be made of chocolate."

"Don't be stupid,"

"I'm not!" Jessie shot back. "What's stupid is that you owe me money, I owe you money, we just got shot by a laser that made a room change, but not us! That's like time travel or something, that's freakin' crazy right there!"

"Okay, okay, I get it... You really think there'll be chocolate?"

"Trust you to listen to _that _part of what I said. No wonder you're a little flubbery on the edges," she teased lightly, "I don't know what's out there, maybe nothing. Maybe we'll get out and be back in Flynn's, we'll get the hell out of here, head back to your place and sleep off this damned hallucination, which I'm gonna say, is probably the fault of chemicals. Don't you keep your coke next to the bleach?"

"Yeah right, this is _so my fault_, little miss can't be trusted with a laser."

"You'd have pushed that button too."

"Would not!"

"Would too,"

"Would not!"

"Would too! You're exactly the same as I am on the inside. If I hadn't pushed it then, you'd have thinking about it for weeks and then you'd have called me up, we'd have come back and we'd be exactly where we are now."

"No way, not me. I'm perfectly fine to get on with my life, not getting zapped, trapped or in any way involved with murder mysteries. I didn't even watch Scooby Doo when we were kids!"

Jessie huffed and kept walking. What kind of person didn't like Scooby Doo? A lame person, that's who. She fumed for a moment until something rather more important grabbed her attention.

"I think I see a light!" Jessie said happily. Hannah skipped up the last few steps and stood back as Jessie opened the iron door again and stepped on the floor of Flynn's. Hannah joined her. Neither one expected to find that-

"It's empty." Hannah said. She grabbed hold of Jessie's arm. "Why is it empty? We were only down there for twenty minutes, tops. It'd take days to clear the whole place out and clean it up so good."

"Yeah, it's impossible," Jessie was edging her way slowly across the diamond patterned floor, towards the door. It still looked like it was dark outside.

"Jessie, wait, don't-," Hannah called out. Her voice echoed though the empty room. Jessie didn't stop until she reached the door.

For a moment, everything was silent.

"You should look at this," Jessie said. In seconds Hannah was beside her and together they looked through the glass door and into something the likes of which neither of them had ever seen, or could ever have imagined.

It was a city in ruins. Buildings were toppled; roads cracked and smashed and blue lights flickered on and off the same way they'd done in Hannah's apartment. Everything out there seemed still and dead. There was silence too, the same as it was in the basement but here it was oppressive and cold, resting over the rubble like a blanket.

"We caused the end of the world," Hannah breathed. Jessie placed a hand against the door and pushed. Dust and debris from outside rolled in, pushed by the winds of the stormy sky.

"Stay here," Jessie commanded. Her face was locked in a steely frown.

"You're not going out there alone,"

"Yeah, I am until we know if the ground is gonna give way when we get three feet from the door."

"But we should-" Hannah tried to interrupt.

"End of conversation. Just stay put," and she was gone.

Hannah watched her sister tread carefully among the piles of cubes and broken lines. Her thick red hair looked purple under the flashes of blue light. Hannah got so close to the glass watching her that her breath misted it up. She wiped it down with her woolly sleeve and waited.

Jessie looked up at the sky. It was black with clouds with rumbled and groaned, and every now and then she'd spot a fleck of red, like a flock of birds that kept moving into the haze. Nothing moved. She motioned to Hannah to come out and soon they stood together, surveying the madness.

"It's like a bomb went off or something," Hannah commented. Her blue eyes looked brighter in the ruined city lights.

"We should move on, see if we can find-" Jessie looked around, "Something, or someone, or anything we can use."

"At least we know one thing," Hannah said.

"What?"

"You were right. We're not in our city anymore. Look at where my apartment is meant to be."

And there, instead of the block of apartments, was the wreck of a huge circular skyscraper, its massive hulk blown away by whatever force had destroyed the city. Flynn's had fared much the same, with its own skyscraper fallen away, broken in half as though it'd been snapped like a twig.

"A teleport?" Jessie guessed. Hannah rubbed her face in her hands. She was torn between screaming until she collapsed or just collapsing.

"I don't know. Maybe. This whole place is like a different world." Jessie grabbed Hannah by the hand.

"Different world, different whatever," she said fiercely, "We're just going to move, and we'll find our way. Don't you worry." Hannah nodded. Jessie hugged her and then started to walk, pulling her little sister along as she did. She didn't feel strong or confident, but she never wanted to see her sister cry, so she had to be, Hannah needed her to lead her, so that's what she would do.

They picked their way across streets, over vehicles and around the fallen architecture of their new alien world. They walked for what seemed like miles, but nothing seemed to change. The buildings got more and more damaged the further they went and soon it was impossible to tell what had been stood there before it had been reduced to rubble.

They walked for miles, hand in hand, not talking but together. Hannah stared at the cruel sky as the ground evened out, the rubble becoming the edges of a straight path to somewhere. Minutes blurred into hours and hours felt like days. Jessie tried looking at her watch, but it remained stubbornly at 03:47, blinking stupidly up at her.

The floor lighting dimmed underneath their feet as they went. Looking ahead, Jessie could see a place where they faded out completely, dropping off of the edge of the world. Beyond that even, if she squinted, there might have been a light, but it was so faint she might have been imagining it.

The strangest thing about the world was how it felt. To Hannah, it was too cold and everything stayed still as though it were frozen. Dust on the floor might have moved in the wind but there were no plants, no trees, no life. Everything was barren and angular and desolate and it stretched in front of her forever.

Jessie couldn't smell anything but herself. Her world was one of constant colours, sounds and smells. She cooked, smoked, danced and had various boyfriends, sometimes at the same time. She occupied her time with anything she could find to distract herself; but here everything was stripped away and all she could see was the ground in front of her and the shadows of an unfamiliar place, all she hear was her heartbeat and footsteps and all she smelt was the fact she'd worn yesterdays clothes; even then she felt naked.

"We'll stop here," Jessie said finally, looking at a few pieces of debris they could pull into a tent shape for shelter. Hannah was too tired to talk, and this was one point she didn't want to argue on anyway. She let go of her sister's hand and helped build their small shelter.

"That'd do," Jessie said after a few minutes. It was makeshift, but it'd do. Hannah crawled under the slab they'd put over some sturdy wreckage and curled up into a ball. Jessie climbed in behind her and held her. She was so exhausted that it took her a few moments to realise Hannah was sobbing.

She shuffled closer and put her arm around her little sister's waist. Despite Hannah being a much larger build than Jessie, she'd always be the little sister. It was hard to stop thinking of someone like that, she thought, when you've practically been their idol for twenty years. Stroking her short hair, Jessie lulled Hannah to sleep and shut her tired eyes.

* * *

When Hannah woke up it was pitch black. For a moment she didn't know where she was and she groped around for her clock, hoping the little red numbers would put her mind at ease. She stiffened as she reached out and found that not only was her clock not there, she wasn't in bed, on in her house, but on the cool smooth surface of whatever it was she was lying on. Inching away from her sister, she wriggled out from under the slab, sat on its edge and looked up at the foreboding sky. It was some dreary colour, grey or brown or black, or maybe even all three. She wished that the sun would come up. At least that would make her feel better.

The silence was disturbed by a crunch.

Hannah went stiff as a board, her blood pumping a million miles a minute. Jessie?

No.

Jessie was still asleep. Something else was out there.

Something was getting closer. There was another crunch. She tried to be still but she was shaking like a leaf. If she turned, it would see her, it would get her!

But, almost against her will, she looked. Slowly, slowly until-

"**PROGRAM. YOU WILL BE RECTIFIED OR YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO DERESOLUTION**."

* * *

Dun dun DUN! What will happen?

The more you review, the more I'll do and the quicker I'll post a new chapter too - so do tell me if you liked it. Ciao! - End of Line -


	4. Hannah Harrison Vs The World

Greetings Users! Here's the next chapter, which I hope you enjoy. **Disclaimer: **Yeah, the negotiations aren't going well, so I still don't own Tron.

* * *

_Something was getting closer. There was another crunch. She tried to be still but she was shaking like a leaf. If she turned, it would see her, it would get her!_

_But, almost against her will, she looked. Slowly, slowly until-_

_**"PROGRAM. YOU WILL BE RECTIFIED OR YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO DERESOLUTION."  
**_

_**

* * *

**_

Hannah screamed louder and harder than she'd screamed in her life. The thing shuffling towards her with a hideous loping gait was long and lithe, and used the spear it held in one hand as a crutch, dragging its broken body along the ground. Half of its head was completely gone; the rest of its body flickered and spluttered like a firework. She was so transfixed by it that she didn't see a second creature stumbling towards her, its empty hands reaching out towards her.

"**RECTIFY." **Its empty eye sockets stared directly at her. She dashed sideways, trying to run, but stopped when she saw what was coming in the distance. Like a horde of the undead they lurched and staggered towards her. She couldn't count how many there were.

"Get your hands off me!" By the time she looked back, one of the things had pulled Jessie out of their shelter and lifted her up by her hair. She let out a piercing scream and it dropped her. Jessie ran and as she ran past Hannah she grabbed her hand.

"Come on!"

Together they ran as fast as they could, but the things seemed to pour from everywhere, every corner and crevice.

"**RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY." **They chanted in one strange voice, like a record played at half the speed.

They ran as fast as their legs could carry them, looking for somewhere they could hide, or a weapon they could use. There was nothing, just rubble and the monsters behind them, pitching and reeling. They weren't fast and they wouldn't catch them if the girls just kept running.

Hannah saw it first. She jerked away from her sister and they both skidded to a stop

"Oh no, no!" Hannah moaned.

Before them, a great chasm yawned wide, like the jaws of some terrible creature. Hannah glanced over the edge and shivered wildly, it was so deep that the bottom was pitch black. She whirled around and stared back at the army of monsters advancing on them.

"**RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY." **They chanted. Jessie hissed through her teeth.

"Hannah, we've got to jump," she barked, rolling her weight from one foot to another. She kept glancing wildly behind her at the pit.

"No, we'll fall! We'll die!"

"If they catch us we're dead anyway! We've got to jump," There was a wild panic in Jessie's eyes. The things shuffled closer.

"I can't!"

"You have to!"

They were twenty feet away.

"**RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY."**

"On three!"

"NO!"

"One," Hannah's hands flew to her face and she began to shake.

"**RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY."**

"Two," Jessie had tears in her eyes.

"**RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY." **

Ten feet away and closing, just close enough to reach over and grab them,

"**RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY. RECTIFY."**

"THREE!"

Jessie jumped.

Hannah watched her sister soar through the air like she was flying. Her head turned and their eyes met. An arm grabbed Hannah around the waist and pulled her back from the edge of the chasm and just like that Jessie was gone.

Something was close to her face, so close she could feel its breath on her, but she couldn't feel a thing. She was singular, removed from everything, trapped in a moment made of white and the terror in Jessie's eyes. She didn't even register when the voices that had chanted for her earlier took up a new call.

"**GAMES."**

* * *

Hannah lay on the floor like a broken doll. Everything hurt. She'd been taken by the monsters and thrown into a cell, somewhere dark and pale and cold. She didn't think she could move if she tried. Her sister had killed herself; or rather she'd died trying to escape. She wasn't a coward. Tears leaked from Hannah's eyes and she couldn't even find the strength to blink them away.

She could have been there for years, or days, or maybe it was just a few minutes. She breathed because she had to, and stared at the ceiling, and was still.

"Hey." A voice said. Hannah didn't notice. "Hey, you. Hello!" it tried again. She lolled her head towards the sound. From the other side of a cracked sheet of glass, someone was looking at her. Hannah tried to bring them into focus.

"Hm?" she murmured.

"Look, I know we're not supposed to share, but you look like you need this more than I do." The person, a young looking woman with her dishevelled hair and a strange, glowing body suit pushed something small and round through a crack in the glass. It rolled until it bumped her arm gently. Hannah didn't even look at it.

"Hey, come on, it's okay. A couple of the others were having some trouble accessing their memory too. All you've got to do is ingest it and you'll feel like just like new,"

Hannah still didn't move. The girl on the other side of the glass sighed.

"I can't do all the work here; I'm just a help program. You have to do it yourself."

"I can't,"

"Yes, you can."

"Why even try?" she said flatly. The girl behind the glass shrugged.

"You don't have to. It'll help on the game grid though. You haven't got a hope of surviving in that condition."

Fear settled over Hannah like a blanket, sinking through the apathy. Her arms shook as she pushed her aching and exhausted body up.

"Game grid?" she asked. The other girl smiled grimly and turned towards the corridor outside their cells.

"You'll find out. Just don't die," She stood up and her door opened. A pair of guards with spears were waiting for her.

"**PROGRAM. YOU WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE GAMES." **One of them said. Hannah scrambled to the glass with shaking legs and watched them take her away. She didn't kick or scream; she just hung her head and let them take her. Hannah heart beat frantically in her chest, but she didn't call out. The horrible thought that she'd never see her again wrapped around her like a choke hold. When she couldn't see the girl anymore, she slumped back against the glass in despair. Her eyes caught sight of the little vial, still in the middle of the room. She crawled towards it, not trusting her legs to hold her, and looked at it. It looked like a small drink of water. The sound of footsteps in the corridor nearly made her drop it. The faint glare of orange lights likes shone through the walls and without thinking, she wrenched the top off of the vial and drank the contents. The lights got closer. She felt better though, energised, and she was able to stand without even a hint of a shake. The guards were outside her door now.

"**PROGRAM. YOU WILL PARTICIPATE IN THE GAMES." **Hannah wanted to run away, fight her way out or just hide somewhere. She wanted to escape this nightmare, but what she did was imitate the other girl. She hadn't broken down crying, and she was the only thing Hannah had to hold on to now. So she walked between the guards with her head down until they reached a set of doors. They opened silently and Hannah was pushed into the pitch back room. They led her to a spot, which she assumed was the middle of the room, and her feet got caught in something.

A few lights blinked on in the room. Some of the stayed on, others flashed on for a moment, sparked and died. The guards shuffled out of the room and she finally got a good look at it. It might have been clean once, but it looked like it was a long time ago. It was dusty and there were cracks in the walls, like there'd been an earthquake. Panels from the walls were peeling away and she couldn't see what was beneath them.

A low sound, like an automatic door opening, caught her attention. She looked around the room and saw what looked like pods opening. There were four in total, but only two people, or whatever these things were, programs, stepped out. They limped towards her rhythmically, one of them dragging a useless leg behind her. They only stopped moving when they were a few inches from her. They both pointed their finger in the air and to Hannah's horror both sparked like a welding torch.

"Hey, don't, I-" but the women cut down anyway. The light was hot, and Hannah winced as it passed over her skin. Her clothes fell off of her and were sucked into the floor. "That sweater was my moms," she said. She covered her chest with her arms, and looked down at her feet. She gave a yelp when she saw something black creeping up her body and she struggled wildly. Her feet were stuck hard to the floor, so all she could do was wriggle as her body was coated in, well, whatever it was. The women in white left her, and took some pieces of plastic from a table. They pushed the plates hard against Hannah and they stuck there, expanding until she was covered with them. It made her feel a little better. It felt like armour.

Then, it lit up. Hannah jerked again. She realised this was what the girl for the cell next to her had been wearing. She hadn't expected that she'd glow.

"**ATTENTION PROGRAM. YOU WILL RECEIVE AN IDENTITY DISK. EVERYTHING YOU DO OR LEARN WILL BE IMPRINTED ON THIS DISK. IF YOU LOSE YOUR DISK OR FAIL TO FOLLOW COMMANDS, YOU WILL BE SUBJECT TO IMMEDIATE DERESOLUTION."**

Deresolution. The things that had grabbed her by the cliff, where Jessie- They'd threatened her with that before. Whatever it was, she really didn't want to have it happen to her. It sounded painful. She jerked as something was pushed onto her back.

"Disk activated. Proceed to games," One of the woman said tonelessly. She stepped backwards towards her pod, and with another small sound, she was back in her pod and the room went dark. Hannah tried moving and found that her feet were free. She touched the disk on her back. What did it do?

Another set of doors opened. Hannah felt sick. That was probably the doors that led to the games, the games she'd been told not to die in. All she could do was step forward through the doors and hope. So she did.

* * *

He sat on the floor of the pod, looking out at the other contestants. Each of them looked scared, or broken, or both. He felt sad. They were all programs, some better than him at their functions, some more up to date, others probably wishing they could get back to their parent systems, and none of them deserved to be here.

There had been caught though, like he had been and that meant that he'd have to derez them to survive. He had to survive. There were things he had to do- things he had to do- things he had to-

He was broken too. He didn't know his function, or who had created him. Whenever he tried to access his primary directives, his mind took an invalid file path. Still, whoever he was, he was sure that he needed to survive. He just didn't know why.

The last contestant wandered into their pod, a girl. She looked very lost. They started to rise and the old stadium came into view. It was all in ruins. There were no programs watching them because there were so few left. His compartment rolled around and he faced his first combatant.

That program looked tiredly at him. His right arm was a mangled mess of code and half of his face had sunk down towards his neck. He blinked but didn't even pull out his disk.

"**I cannot function,**" he said. "**but I can destroy you,**" and he reached behind his back. He was a broken mess of cubes on the floor before he'd even activated his disk.

The cubicles shifted and moved again. There was no stopping their automated cycle. The second program to face him was a slim girl. She looked at him with dispassionate eyes. Without a word she hurled her disk at him. He dodged easily. She caught the disk and threw it again. Without it though, she was defenceless. One of her legs was completely ruined. His disk slammed into her the moment she'd let hers fly at him and she crumpled.

He watched some of the other combatants as his cell shifted again. One girl seemed to be winning because she was coming up against programs so non-operational that they couldn't physically fight back. She was his next opponent.

As they joined, he saw her face full of fear. She had her disk in her hand but she was shaking so badly that he knew she'd never hit anything if she threw it. He pulled his arm back to end her when she did something he'd never expected.

She looked him in the eyes, dropped her disk and fell to her knees, throwing up onto the floor. He lowered his arm. Programs had many different functions. They could eat, drink, but it was all lines of code in the end. They didn't have stomachs or the capacity to process proteins.

"User," he said. She stayed on the ground, coughing and spluttering. He jumped over to her platform and she backed away on her hands and knees until she was pressed up against the back wall. Her eyes darted around, looking for an exit that wasn't there. He stopped for a moment, wondering why he wasn't going to derez her. He still had to progress. The closer he got to her, the clearer it became, and part of his programming made him smile at her.

"I don't wanna die," She yelped at him, and hid her eyes. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She flinched away from him.

"It's alright. I'll keep you safe." He told her. She stared up at him with eyes as blue as circuits.

"Why?"

"I fight for the users,"

* * *

_And that's all for today! I'd be real ecstatic if you could review this, so, if you've got the time, go ahead, make my day._


	5. Program's Run

Greetings Users! To all those still reading, I hope you like this next bit!

**Disclaimer: You see this? This is a fanfiction, if I owned Tron this would be a movie right now.**

* * *

"_I don't wanna die," She yelped at him, and hid her eyes. He grabbed her arm and pulled her up. She flinched away from him._

"_It's alright. I'll keep you safe." He told her. She stared up at him with eyes as blue as circuits._

"_Why?"_

"_I fight for the users,"  
_

_

* * *

_

He'd not expected her to cling to him for dear life when he'd said he'd protect her. If fact, he couldn't think of a time anyone had ever grabbed him like that. He pushed her away as he looked for some way to escape. Getting out once they were free of the cells would be the easy part. The stadium had been so thoroughly destroyed in the blast that its once impregnable walls would be basic enough to climb over. It was the cells which were the problem. Once a prerequisite number of programs had won their battles, the round was complete and all programs on the remaining level would be derezzed. To progress, one of them would have to kill the other.

As much as it seemed impossible, they had to escape before the next round. To try and jump down from the high cells would mean certain deresolution anyway, so that wasn't an option. His eyes scanned the rubble. The cells rotated slowly around and he spotted a shelf that if they jumped at the right time, they should be able to get to. He beckoned the girl over. They didn't have much time. He glanced back after a moment and saw she hadn't moved. She was still sat on the floor when he'd left her.

"User, we have to move." He called to her. She just sat there shivering. "User!"

"I can't!" She slammed a hand down on the glass. "I can't!" It was somewhere between and scream and a hysterical yell. He'd never met a User, but if they were all like her than he was sure he wouldn't like them. Over her shoulder he saw another program derez. If two more won their battles it would be over.

"We have to go now!" She still didn't move. Another program derezzed. He stormed over to her and grabbed her by the arm, hauling her to her feet. "We have one chance!" The rubble shelf got closer. He dragged her forwards by the arm until they were at a gap in the cell wall. The rubble inched closer. A program threw their identity disk towards his opponent. They leapt.

* * *

They landed together, safely on the other side of the pit. The ground beneath them trembled with the extra weight. The user was on her knees, hunched over with her arms over her chest. She looked up at him with wide, grateful eyes, but he wasn't particularly interested in that. The ground beneath them groaned and pitched forward.

"Run!" He shouted, and for once she obeyed. He grabbed onto her arm, pulling her forwards faster and faster as she flailed behind him, trying to keep up. The ruins shifted under their feet as he dragged her across the shards of the broken stadium. Every now and then he'd catch a glimpse of a flickering orange light and he'd run harder. The user was slowing him down. If he was alone he could have out run them easily, he was sure of it, but with her his hope of getting away clean got smaller and smaller.

The sheer drop down from their platform wasn't an option, they were too high up. The only way he could think to get out was to try and find their way down from the inside. It was dangerous, but it was a suicide less assured than if they just jumped and hoped.

With a swift turn he led the user down a dark corridor. The darkness was a good sign, it would hide them for now and as long as there was no telltale orange glow coming from up ahead they'd be safe. The corridors twisted and turned like the circuits on a motherboard, a logical labyrinth he had little trouble navigating. The floor beneath them still rocked unsteadily as they ran, but it would hold. That's what he was betting on at least.

He didn't see the light up ahead until it was too late. The user bumped into his back as he skidded to a halt out of sight. He held a finger to his lips and the user girl nodded, still breathing fast and hard. She was too loud! He cursed the two of the guards turned as one, their ruined bodies still able to run after the newly escaped prisoners. The user would have screamed, he was sure, but she didn't have the capacity. Her lungs were being overtaxed as it was. Grabbing her by the wrist, he turned back and started to run again.

The two guards seemed to multiply the further they ran. Around one bend two became four and then six and as they passed one opening they were set up by three more. He was grad their directives didn't include strategic AI, or the escape would be impossible. As it was they just followed the pair like rats.

As they ran through the twisting corridors, he looked around for ways to get down. When he saw a set of stairs he pulled the user towards them, and they started their descent. The orange guards were following them doggedly, but they lost three on the first flight of stairs when their mangled legs snagged in the rubble and tore off.

They gained ground until they got to the third floor. The stairs broke off in a twisted tangle of wires and wrecked code.

"There," the user gasped out, pointing at a gap in the wall. He looked outside. A piece of the arena had broken off and led down like a ramp a story below them. If they jumped and landed right, they'd be able to slide right down it and out onto the grid. The stomp of their pursuers clinched it. They'd have to jump.

The user looked like she was regretting having said anything, but there wasn't any room for discussion. Pulling her along again, they stood on the edge and with just a few stairs separating them from the guards, they jumped for their lives.

He hit the wall feet first and tumbled, tucking his legs in. The world spun crazily around him, the lights of the grid whirling like a Catherine wheel in his peripheral vision. It seemed like cycles before the world stopped spinning. The user wasn't much better off. She hit the wall sideways and spun like a top until she hit the ground, hard.

The guards hung back at the edge of the stadium. They seemed to be weighing up whether they'd survive the jump in their condition. In the back of his mind, he hoped they wouldn't do it. As corrupted as they were, they would never survive and whilst they were enemies, a program was a program. They were just doing what they had to do. They couldn't fight it.

The more pressing issue was the need to keep moving. The user tried to get up, but kept falling back, her pale face now a spectacular shade of green. It reminded him of something he couldn't remember. He went back for her and threw her arm over his shoulder. Together they moved off, not looking back. Behind him, he heard the sound of a program tumbling down the wall and shattering into a thousand pieces at the bottom, his code unable to take the strain of the impact.

They walked away and weren't followed.

* * *

Hannah's head was completely overwhelmed. She was walking, but only because she was leaning on the guy who'd saved her. He still hadn't really looked at her. She kept her legs moving, concentrating on the motion. There was only one explanation for all of this. It had to be a hallucination. She'd been tired, confused and hungry, lot and alone and fallen down a slope steeper than any rollercoaster she'd ever dared to go on, if her body were to be believed.

It just couldn't be happening. The empty streets of the city echoed with their footsteps. Finally, after what felt like hours, he led her inside a building and into a tiny storage space. There were a few dusty blankets in there, and the man threw them into a pile on the floor, looking for something. He didn't seem to find it. He took a deep breath and the blue lights on his body seemed to flicker for a moment.

"I'm going to go out for some supplies. Stay here." His voice was steely and she didn't even think of disobeying. She nodded sluggishly and watched him walk out of the building. When he reached the door, he pulled out his disk, checking the surrounding area. Satisfied, he took off at a jog and vanished out of sight. Hannah didn't waste any time. The blankets were covered in dirt and strange glassy looking squares which she dusted off as best she could. Piling as many together as she could, she cocooned herself inside and laid down, using the last one as a pillow. She was asleep in less than a minute.

* * *

When he got back with a bag full of anything he could find, he wasn't prepared for what he saw. The user was curled up in a ball, completely unaware of her surroundings. Her right arm was trapped inside the blankets and the left was cushioning her head. He felt anger swell inside him. He could understand that users got tired, he knew that, but to sleep at a time like this, and in such a position that she couldn't defend herself? She was practically begging to be derezzed.

He let the bag drop to the floor heavily. He was tired too. The supplies he'd found would last a few days, but after that they need to go scavenging. There was at least enough energy to keep them both up and running until they could find a source. He nudged the user with his foot. She didn't even stir. He rolled his eyes. How could any program have ever believed that a user was better than them? They were so weak. He was close to wishing that his directive could be deleted and he could just leave her.

It didn't feel right to want that though; he slumped down against the wall, his lights beginning to flicker again. He would still protect the users; he would always fight for them. He felt sure that the directive went deeper. It didn't just feel like an imperative. It felt like a promise. It felt like a promise to an old friend, someone he'd lost a long time ago.

He reached over from where he was hunched and pulled an empty rack the short distance over to the door, sealing them into the cramped room. Then he grabbed his identity disk from his back and spun it around on his finger for a while. He fiddled with it, splitting it from one disk into two and then back again. Eventually he got bored of fidgeting and just sat in the dark, keeping his ears open for any noise. All he could hear was the user, breathing in the dark. It was so familiar, that sound. He vaguely wondered where he'd come across it before.

She stirred in her sleep, rustling in the blankets. He had to have met a user before to have breathing sound so familiar before. Much like food programs didn't need to breath. Some appeared to, and functioned as though they did, their chests moving with the simulated action, but it just wasn't necessary. He tried to think back. His memory logs were almost completely corrupted, but he kept on searching. His circuits flickered in the dark as he touched on garbled data. There were incomplete names, faces he couldn't make out, and someone smiling at him, but he didn't know who. He dug deeper; trying to root around the one directive he had access to. He fought for the users.

He fought for the users. It meant something important. He picked through the raw data, still trying to discover what it really meant. Zero and Ones flashed in front of his eyes in a frenetic whirl, and for a moment he was lost in his own code.

He pulled out, the numbers meaningless with a language to interpret them. Tripping on the pathways of his distorted programming, he didn't see the error coming until it was too late. As soon as he opened his eyes to the grid it hit him and he slumped over, his eyes vacant and the circuits on his body extinguished.

The room was dark.

* * *

**And that's all for today. Tune in next episode for new friend, new foes and old faces. Goodnight!**


	6. Rumble in the Jungle

Greetings Users! It is with great pleasure I present to you my next chapter. Enjoy! **Disclaimer: Nope, bank account still red. Definitely don't own the rights to this.**

* * *

_Tripping on the pathways of his distorted programming, he didn't see the error coming until it was too late. As soon as he opened his eyes to the grid it hit him and he slumped over, his eyes vacant and the circuits on his body extinguished._

_The room was dark.  
_

_

* * *

_

Hannah woke up with a jerk. She'd been dreaming about walking along the edge of a knife, and Jessie was with her.

"Jesus kid, you look like you've seen a ghost!" She laughed. That smile was frozen on her face even as she fell into the black and disappeared. The man who'd saved her shook his head sadly, sitting on a line.

"I liked that user better," he said, and then he fell backwards as well and disappeared into the darkness. She'd felt like she was screaming, but she wasn't.

She wriggled most of the way out of her blanket cocoon, looking around. The room was bathed in the light from her suit. It was brighter than it had been before.

The man was asleep too, his head against his chest. She looked at him for a while. He was pale, like the women who'd dressed her, and he was intense looking. She got the feeling he didn't like her all that much, and she hoped he wouldn't go away.

Considering he'd not woken her up, so she thought she'd be courteous and do the same. She sat in the dark, picking at loose threads in one of the blankets. They turned to tiny shards when she pulled them away from their source.

She shook them in her palm for a second. Wherever this place was, it felt real, but it was just impossible. The shards in her hand tinkled lightly as they touched each other, but they weren't sharp. They didn't cut her.

"I wonder if this is the future?" She murmured to the shards. They didn't reply, and she sat back, leaning her head against the wall. The disk on her back pushed into her spine uncomfortably and everything was quiet and dull.

A slow smile grew on her face as an idea formed in her head, and she nudged the man with her foot, dodging back in case he woke up. He didn't move. She inched forward and gave him a bigger nudge. His head lolled a little, but he still didn't show any signs he'd felt it. She frowned and inched closer, this time reaching out and poking him in the face. She darted back again, but he was completely still.

She poked him again, a little harder. She poked his nose, the edge of his jaw and his forehead, pushing the skin so he raised an eyebrow. Nothing happened.

With a frown, Hannah did the only other thing she could think of and kicked him hard in the shoulder. He slumped forwards like a puppet with its strings cut.

"Oh crap!" She yelped. She threw the remaining blankets off of herself and picked him up, leaning him back against the wall. There was dirt on his face and his eyes were open, staring blankly ahead.

"Hey," she said. "Hey, guy. Mister? Hey, come on, don't do this to me," she said, kneeling in front of him. She shook him by the shoulders. "Wake up," she demanded. When nothing happened she shook him harder. "Wake up!" She slapped him in the face. "WAKE UP!"

She tried various combinations of shaking and slapping, shouting and even one head butt, but nothing happened. The lights on his suit remained resolutely deactivated.

She was out of ideas. She was an office admin assistant, not a doctor. Hell, the people here didn't even seem to _be_ people. She slapped him once more, just in case something happened, but it didn't. She sat back, trying not to cry. Then she did something even she wasn't expecting, and she punched him in the face.

All that happened was that he jerked left, and his identity disk fell from his hand. She picked it up and twirled it between her fingers for a while. She nearly dropped it when she caught it flat between her palms and it lit up, swirls of code pouring from it. She looked at it with wide eyes. It was like something out of the matrix. She shook it and it changed, the code rearranging itself into a sphere, cracked and broken.

It was like being Sleeping Beauty told not to touch a spinning wheel, she couldn't help herself. She reached up awkwardly with one finger and hovered it over the surface of the sphere, touching it as lightly as a feather.

The sphere expanded as she did, shining with the contact.

"Oh, wow," she breathed, and the code churned like dust in a whirlwind. It changed colour and shaped, and pulsed and glowed. She watched it with wide eyes. When it slowed down, a few of the cracks looked better, but not much had changed. It still looked broken. She put it down, hoping it would turn off if she let go of it. The code vanished obediently and its light faded back into nothing. When she was sure it was done she put the disk back in his hand, in case he woke up, so that way he wouldn't think she'd messed with it. It seemed pointless, but everything in this bizarre place did. She could hate Jessie for what she'd done; her stupid inability to leave well enough alone. She could _hate _her.

Hannah took her own disk off of her back and leant against the wall. For the first time since she'd arrived she didn't feel like crying. She didn't feel like anything. So, she sat next to her rescuer and stared blankly at the wall.

She thought about a lot of things. She thought about how she was probably going to die here, and how Jessie already had. She thought about herself and about the man who'd protected her without ever even asking her name. She thought about how much she hated Jessie and how much she hated this place. She thought about herself.

She was dragged from her reverie by a low rumble. It started small, like a roll of thunder and a few loose items in the room shook, but it got harder. The racking rattled hard against the walls; some of the things on the shelves fell to the ground and smashed into more strange glassy cubes. Hannah kept low on the ground. The racking that had been leant against the door splintered to nothing and the flickering lights of the outside streamed in, blinking like strobe lights. She squinted against it and peered around the door. Outside she saw a few of the strange people from before, some running, some shuffling along with their broken bodies, but all of them leaving and fast. A shadow threw itself across the street outside. Something was wrong out there, terribly wrong. The ground shook even harder; one of the skeletal buildings was flung to the ground by the tremors. A few of the people were crushed, their bodies exploding into cubes. Her mind was reeling.

They were screaming. Even the orange ones, they had been screaming in fear.

A small noise echoed over the tremors. The wall of the tiny room was cracking like porcelain. She acted without thinking, grabbing hold of the man who'd saved her and slinging his arm over her shoulder. She silently thanked whatever god existed in this place that he was lighter than he looked. Half running, half dragging him behind her, she dashed from the room and towards the door. The walls behind her started to crumble, the glassy surface disintegrating before her eyes. Somewhere in the back of her mind she half thought it resembled a game of Tetris, but even as it occurred to her it was overwritten by her newest imperative. She had to run faster and harder than she'd ever run in her life.

She broke out of the door and swung around, looking for a direction. She couldn't go left, that was the way they'd arrived, it'd just lead them back to the stadium, to the right she could see more streets and the tallest buildings still standing in the city. They were rocking precariously already under treacherous ground so she went straight ahead, across the square. She could only hope it led to somewhere safe.

The city around her was writhing. Buildings toppled and collapsed in on themselves, other people were hit by debris and were destroyed; transformed into cascades of crystal. The blue lights underneath the road were going out one by one, leaving the rest of the world dark. The ground still shook wildly beneath her feet. She tripped a few times, her feet catching on the lumps of rock and pieces of wreckage littering the street. She let out a gasp as a needle sharp shard sliced her across the face. Blood dripped down so far that she could taste it and her palms hurt from hitting the ground, but she got up, hitching her rescuer back onto her shoulder and running for her life.

An orange machine flew over her head, soaring through the open air. She watched it with wide eyes as the fragments of a falling building shattered it like glass. She ran harder, the dead weight on her shoulder slowing her down but she wouldn't leave him. Ahead of her she saw the lights of a tall shining skyscraper blink out one by one and the structure wobbled and cracked.

She darted left down a side road, hoping she was far enough away to avoid the fallout. The rumbling grew stronger as the building fell and the ground beneath her cracked, wrenching itself open behind her. She kept running until the last shockwave threw her off her feet and she landed underneath her companion. The wind knocked out of her and her muscles seizing, she gasped as the earth spun and bent in on itself. The buildings next to her fractured and she closed her eyes against the end of the world. She was in so much pain she barely registered her friend being lifted off of her. Suddenly she was back on her feet, running again, but she wasn't moving under her own power. She was being pulled along again. She blinked wildly, trying to get the world back into focus.

She was pulled left, then right, then left again, through the labyrinth of back streets and alleyways, the lights of the world around her glinting and sparking. The ground peeled open behind them again, and they darted ahead of it. The buildings thinned out the further they ran and soon, the tremors stopped altogether and Hannah felt herself be let down. She slumped to the ground and keeled forwards, leaning on her elbows and breathing hard. Her throat ached, her chest ached and her legs were like jelly.

A less than soft slap echoed through the empty space next to he and her rescuer was dropped to the floor. Hannah didn't look up. She could barely move. She couldn't get enough air into her body, the adrenaline made her shaky and stars whirled through the air in front of her eyes. She coughed and spluttered on the floor, but whoever had grabbed her didn't do anything, or say anything. When Hannah got enough of her breath back to look up, she was alone except for her rescuer. She winced as her lungs fought with her brain. If she breathed any harder she'd be hyperventilating and have a panic attack. She looked back towards the centre of the city. There were fewer buildings where she was, so she had a clear view of the skyline. The tallest building in the city still stood by but most of the skyscrapers had been destroyed by the quake. Maybe that had been what caused the ruins in the first place? She considered.

The sound of feet on rubble caught her attention and she looked towards it hopefully. Her heart dropped when instead of anyone friendly looking, she saw an orange thing, this one with full use of its legs and it's disk in hand. It snarled and spluttered, walking purposefully towards her. She back pedalled on her hand and knees as it got closer and closer, but she couldn't stand.

"**DEREZ- PROGRAMS WH- OBJECTIVE O- LU-" **It guttered at her.

"Don't," she tried weakly, but her voice wouldn't work. It stopped in front of her and looked at her suit with a deliberate stare.

"**ALL GL- TO CL-"** It raised its disk high as she stared into its emotionless eyes. It cocked its head to the side like a bird and shattered into a million pieces. Hannah's mouth hung open in shock.

"Jeez kid, I can't leave you alone for two damn seconds,"

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**And that's all for today. Tune in next time for thrills, laughs and drama! As always, I'd love it if you reviewed, and as an added bonus, if you review, I'll probably review some of your stuff too! Bribery? yes, but I love being told if I'm doing something wrong (or not. You never know, someone out there might be enjoying this, the masochist!). Cheers!**


	7. Is You Is Or Is You Ain't?

Greetings Users! This update is sponsored by lack of sleep! _Keeping you awake even after your brain starts melting!_ **Disclaimer: *checks watch* give it until the next lottery draw. I don't own it now, but soon..!**

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_It raised its disk high as she stared into its emotionless eyes. It cocked its head to the side like a bird and shattered into a million pieces. Hannah's mouth hung open in shock._

_"Jeez kid, I can't leave you alone for two damn seconds,"  
_

_

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_

Hannah gaped up at the blue lit figure before her.

"Jessie?" She whispered hoarsely. Jessie grinned at her little sister.

"In the flesh." Hannah just gawped at her from the ground. Jessie blinked and picked Hannah up by the arm and walked her over to some rubble just high enough to sit on. "S'okay. I've got a pulse and everything," she said with a smile, lifting Hannah's hand and placing it against her neck. "You okay Han?"

Hannah swallowed thickly and Jessie put her finger in the air. "Hold up, I got you-" she fumbled around her chest plate. "Can't get a pocket to save my- ah!" She held out a pair of small flasks. They looked like test tubes. "I got you these." Hannah snatched them and drank the contents of the first one greedily. Jessie scratched her head, looking a bit put out. "No Han, it's no problem, you don't have to save me any. No, don't bother asking, I'm _fine_." She said sarcastically. She pulled out another flask. "You're lucky I know you, or I wouldn't have got spares." Hannah swallowed the drink.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, holding the empty flash out for Jessie. She sniffed at it. "You keep that one. It's got Hannah germs on it now." She smirked. "You missed the part where I said I had more than one." Hannah rolled the flask in her hand for a while.

"Where do you keep these?" she asked, feeling a lot better but still sore. Jessie bit her lip.

"Well, there aren't any pockets, so, you know, I just kinda," she motioned to her chest. Hannah laughed.

"No wonder you look bigger than an A cup." She looked down at her own chest. "You may have gotten the hair and the thinness genes, but I got the boobs," she said with smug satisfaction. Jessie pouted.

"Hey, at least I've only got to get a boob job once. You can get fat as many times as you like." She poked Hannah in the side. They sat quietly after that.

"Jessie," Hannah said to the air.

"Mm-hm,"

"I'm sorry," She rubbed her arm guiltily. "I'm so sorry, I couldn't go after you, I was too scared and I just watched you jump, but I couldn't do it, and I'm so sorry,"

"It's okay kid. It's not your fault." Jessie leant back. "Jeez, I haven't wanted a cigarette this bad in years," she said mirthlessly.

"I didn't mean to," Hannah murmured. Jessie slapped her on the arm.

"It's okay. What happened, happened. We both made it out okay, and we're together again. We'll be fine." She flipped her red hair and let it hang between her shoulder blades, her eyes to the thundery sky.

"How did you get out?"

"Tough question. I jumped, thought you were coming with me, but hey, that's history, and then I was just falling. Started thinking it wasn't the best plan I've ever come up with,"

"Worse than when you-?"

"Whatever you're going to say, the answer is yes," she said, her grin betraying her. "Anyway, I'm falling and thinking I'm screwed, and I hit the bottom and there's this stream. This water, you wouldn't believe it. It was deeper than you'd believe, but it was, like, I dunno, breathable or something. Well, no, it wasn't breathable, I was still kinda drowning, but when I swallowed some of it I felt," she seemed to consider it for a moment, "I felt powerful, and calm, and relaxed. I just swam to the surface and that was that. That's what was in those flasks, that water. It's like- you've played video games, you know, like a healing potion. It was great," she huffed.

"What?" Hannah asked. "Then what?"

"Well, it was like Night of the freakin' Dead, that's what. Those programs came after me again, and then they got a recognizer involved and I knew I was screwed." She sighed. "That's when they cut off my damned clothes, put me in this damn fetish outfit, which, as much as it does to my figure I am _not_ a fan of, and put me in the games."

"I got put in the games too, disk wars or something," Hannah put in. Jessie chewed on her tongue for a bit.

"Didn't do that one, I got lightcycles. It's a good thing I know how to play I'd have been derezzed in a freakin nano cycle," she scoffed. Hannah folded her arms and frowned. "Something the matter kid?"

"Why are you talking like that? I don't get it!" She burst out. "What the hell is this place! I mean, what's a recognizer, nero cycles, light thingies, what the hell! You're calling things weird names!"

"Yeah, cuz that's what they're called, so don't shout at me," Jessie said, glowering. Her green eyes flashed.

"I wasn't shouting," Hannah said petulantly, imitating Jessie's glare.

"Sounded like it to me." Jessie shot back, "Recognizer, big machine, looks like an square with one side cut off, lightcycles are motorbikes, like in Tron, you remember, the game dad used to play at Flynn's?" she told her.

"But how is it here? I don't get it," Hannah whined. Jessie rolled her eyes.

"Look, I don't know the specifics, but that laser we found,"

"And _you_ pushed," Hannah cut in.

"And I pushed, yeah," Jessie growled, "if you could get over that please, it'd make my day. Now, that laser put us in Tron."

"We're in a video game." Hannah deadpanned. Jessie nodded, turning around and looking at the space around them. It twitched and quivered as the once flat planes of the Grid settled into their new positions, corrupted and broken, shining and cruelly sharp. The bones of the buildings base codes stuck stubbornly out from the twisted landscape, but even as she looked she could see some of the old skyscapers buckle under their own weight and crash quietly to the fragmented ground.

"What's left of it. It's the Tron game, the same one dad played, I mean, apart from the whole apocalypse thing." Another building in the distance blinked out and crumbled. Hannah shivered.

"I guess that explains your health potions." Hannah said, looking purposefully at the small flask. It glinted in the pale light of her suit.

"Makes sense." Jessie shifted on their perch, folding her legs beneath her. "What about you?" she asked, looking over to Hannah, her brown eyes questioning. "I saw them grab you; I thought they'd kill you."

"So did I," Hannah said quietly. "They just took me to the games, and made me," she swallowed again, blinking rapidly, "I had to kill people. They couldn't fight back, and I had to," she gulped, tears falling down her cheeks before she could even comprehend that she was crying. In a second Jessie's arms were around her.

"S'okay, I know. You don't have to worry about that. You didn't know anything wrong, they're not real," she rubbed her sisters back, her own heart in her throat as she thought about some of the thing that she herself had had to do, and the things she'd had to tell herself to get through it. She could see them before her eyes as they stared at her in her glory, her disk high above their heads. There could be no duobt in her mind, none at all that the things she'd had to destroy had no value.

"But they were looking at me, they tried to talk," Hannah continued. Jessie winced. They screamed, cried, and begged. Jessie closed her eyes, but the images remained.

"They aren't real," She said fiercely. "They can't feel anything, they aren't alive." She pushed their face from her mind. Hannah pulled away.

"They are. I saw them, they're-" Jessie brushed Hannah's dark hair from her eyes.

"They're programs Han. They're not people." She said gently. Hannah curled in on herself like a leaf.

"Programs?" she said, sounding as small as she was trying to make herself. Jessie forced a smile.

"Yeah. I swear I derezzed the damn paperclip from Word a while ago. I've wanted to do that for years!" She said and lightly punched Hannah's shoulder. "It's just a game, and they're characters, not people. They don't have families, or friends, they don't get married, have kids and grow old. They just exist."

"But they," Hannah sniffed. "They were looking at me like they were scared and like they knew what was coming,"

"They weren't afraid. They didn't feel anything, they don't really think. They don't have emotions, so how could they be afraid?" Jessie said loudly. Her stomach twisted in on itself as she said it.

"I don't know. Maybe it's AI?" Hannah tried. Jessie barked out a stiff laugh.

"Come on Hannah, you know what AI is like. Do you remember the time we tried to get Cleverbot to understand- well, anything? There wasn't exactly a penny dropping there. None of these programs are any more advanced than that. It's just impossible for them to feel." Hannah still looked miserable, "Think of it this way, have you ever uninstalled a program on your PC?"

"Yeah," Hannah said quietly.

"Well, that's the as giving one a boot up the ass with your disk. You're just sending them to the big recycle bin in the sky Han; it's nothing you haven't done before." She put her arm around Hannah's shoulder and pulled her close, setting her chin on the top of her sister's head.

"Great," Hannah sniffled, wiping her eyes, "Now I'm going to feel guilty forever about uninstalling things," she laughed. She felt better though.

"Nah, don't bother yourself with that. Now, continue,"

"Well, I came up against a program that could fight me back, and I knew I'd lose," She squirmed uncomfortably. "So I sorta, might have, thrown up," Jessie burst out laughing. "Hey, this is serious!" Hannah said indignantly.

"Yeah, but still, that's just so you it's not even funny. Well, apart from that it is," Jessie said with a grin. The tension within her eased, as the subject passed.

"Well it saved my life." Hannah said. "That guy, over there. The," she gulped. "_program_, he saved me." Her eyes flickered over too him. He still hadn't moved or shown any sign of life.

"Why?" Jessie asked.

"He just told me 'I fight for the Users'," Jessie gaped, her eyes bulging.

"No- no way." she choked out.

"What?" Hannah looked up so quickly she smacked her head into Jessie's face. Jessie jumped up, her finger twitching.

"That's what Tron said. That's his whole thing; it's one of the screens on the game if you go two player." She rocked back on her heels, looking at him.

"You remember the weirdest stuff," Hannah muttered, sliding off of the rubble seat.

"Hey, I am seven years older than you; dad and I played doubles a few times. You know what he's like."

"A complete soft touch."

"Pretty much." They both smiled, remembering different times they'd been able to twist their father around their little fingers. As one they looked at each other, tapping their chins in thought.

"So that's Tron?" Hannah said slowly. "I owe him big."

"Like hell you do." Jessie scoffed. "Don't get thinking like that, you don't owe it a thing," Her insides twisted again, but she tried her best to ignore it.

"Jessie! He saved my life." Hannah protested. Jessie scoffed.

"Yeah and a microwave cooks your food, doesn't mean you thank it. Printer prints things for you, but do you treat it like a pet, give it a treat when it does good? No, you change the ink when it needs it; because that's all you have to do. He saved you because he had to, it's his damn function." She said angrily.

"I don't think saving my life at the cost of his is something he had in mind. I think I broke him." She said sadly. Jessie stamped a foot in frustration.

"Hannah, don't do this, seriously," she groaned.

"Do what?" Hannah asked, narrowing her eyes.

"Get attached to that thing. Please kid; I couldn't handle that." Jessie ran her hands through her hair, pawing it back over and over.

"Oh?" Hannah said frostily.

"Come on, I know how you get. You can never decide if you're the princess in the tower or the white knight. It's either save or be saved with you and damn, he's the holy grail of things you'll want get yourself attached to because with him, you've gotten to do both already. Look, I know you think that you owe him a life debt, but if you think about it, you've already paid him back for that. You got him out of the city. You don't have to do anything else for him." Jessie gripped her thick red hair at the nape of her neck and tugged it hard, feeling the strands break under her fingers.

"I don't have to-" Hannah started.

"But you want to." Jessie grimaced. "Damn it!" She kicked the ground. "Hannah, he's broken, yeah? He's all trashed up. He's no good to anyone, least of all us. I don't know if we can even reactivate him," she clawed her fingers through her hair again.

"Can't you try?" Hannah pleaded. Jessie stopped, looking from Hannah to Tron. He had saved her. He had been there when Jessie hadn't been. It wasn't a worthless act, but at the same time she didn't want to have to look him in the face. She didn't want to look any program in the eye. "Please," Hannah asked. Jessie felt her resolve crumble.

"Fine," She said, throwing her hands up in the air. "Fine, but only because it'll make you stop doing those damn puppy eyes."

Jessie stepped up to him and crouched down, looking him over. "Not in the best shape, is it?" She touched his face, tracing an eyebrow. "God, it looks just like the picture. How long's it been like this?"

"I don't know, hours?" Hannah said, joining her on the floor. She poked his cheek, if only to feel like she was helping. Jessie looked him up and down again, but couldn't find anything physically wrong with him

"I'll see if I can do anything. I've been playing around with some of the coding here, gotten a feel for it. I might be able to help." She pulled out his disk and activated it. Hannah stared at the shapes the emerged from the blue tinted coding. Jessie just eyed them critically.

"Ouch, this ain't good." She manipulated the code, delving deeper into the protocols. "Some of the file paths need complete reconstruction."

"Can you do it?" Hannah asked anxiously. Jessie grinned.

"Watch and learn kid," and she did. Hannah sat with rapt attention as Jessie poured over the code, repairing shortcuts, accessing memories and rerouting functions. She was in her own little world as she did it, a strange peace coming over her as she went through the language and corrected it. Hannah's legs were going numb by the time Jessie had finished. She swept a hand across her eyes and deactivated the code on the disk.

"There, " she said finally, "I couldn't fix all of it, but aside from a few temp logs and a couple of memory files, he should be good as new." She fitted the disk to his back and his suit lit up dimly. Hannah smiled and stood up, shaking herself out. Jessie heaved herself up and took a few steps. "It'll be fine in a bit. You know programs; they take a while to boot up." Together they walked a few steps, each trying to shake the pins and needles that were attacking them. Hannah was limping quite badly, and Jessie wasn't much better, hopping along on her better leg.

"Thank you," Hannah said sincerely, her blue eyes shining as she looked up at her big sister. Jessie smiled weakly.

"That's what I do kid, I save the day. You've just got to promise me one thing." she said seriously.

"Yeah, what?" Hannah said, gingerly stopping and trying to put both feet on the ground without them feeling like they were on fire. Jessie grabbed her by the shoulders, looking straight into her eyes.

"If he turns orange, you've got to let me derez him."

"What? Jessie," Hannah tried to pull away but Jessie held her there, uncomfortably close and deadly serious.

"Promise me. If he starts screwing up and turns into one of those- those things, you can't be in my way. I _will_ destroy him." she told her.

"But you just fixed him. If he starts malfunctioning or something, can't we do that again?" Hannah asked, a hint of a plea in her voice.

"Hannah, he's not exactly fighting us right now." Jessie said, exasperated. "You really think I'd have been able to get his disk off of him if he was awake? Trust me, that wouldn't end well for anyone." Jessie let her go and started pacing. "What if he wakes up orange? What if he tries to kill us?" Her mind spun with the possibilities and her insides felt like they were turning to lead.

"Jessie,"

"Could I beat him? How good is he?" She took larger steps, her eyes widening as every thought of every thing going wrong passed through her mind.

"Jessie," Hannah tried again.

"I shouldn't give him a chance," She muttered wildly. A program grinned at her from a lightcycle in her mind, turning towards her even though she was on the same team. She bit her lip.

"JESSIE!" Hannah yelled in her face.

"WHAT?" She screamed back.

"You're talking to yourself." Hannah said, shaken. Jessie reeled back, shaking her head. The lightcycles disappeared. She narrowed her eyes at the program in their midst. The threat remained.

"Shut up. There's something I've got to do," and Jessie pulled her disk from her back, looking down at Tron. He seemed fragile, lying there like a broken doll. It'd be so easy to get rid of him. She needed to get rid of him. He could hurt Hannah. She raised her disk. She didn't see her sister running at her.

"Stop!" Hannah tackled Jessie to the ground.

"Hannah! Get off me!" She said breathlessly. Hannah tried to wrestle her disk from her hand. Jessie held it out of her reach, wriggling and turning, trying to get her sister off of her.

"Don't do it," Hannah gasped as Jessie elbowed her in the stomach, threw her off and rolled away. Hannah was standing between her and Tron, her arms throw wide. She was winded, but her legs were steady and Jessie knew she didn't have the advantage. Hannah could easily keep her away with heavier body. It'd be like running into a post.

"But he could wake up wrong," Jessie said desperately.

"I trust you," Hannah returned.

"I don't trust him!" Jessie retorted, nodding at Tron. "I don't trust any program,"

"He saved my life!" Hannah told her fiercely.

"Yeah, you keep saying," Jessie spat, "and you've already saved him. Why are you being so stubborn about this, I'm trying to protect us!"

"You don't even know if he'll wake up like that! You're just going to kill him!"

"For God's sake kid; he's not a person!" Jessie screamed exasperatedly, clenching her fists.

"Why can't you just give him a chance?" Hannah pleaded.

"A chance to kill us!" Jessie yelled.

"You don't know that!" Hannah screamed back. Jessie charged forward and Hannah braced herself for the tackled, but Jessie grabbed her arm instead and pulled her away. "HEY!"

"Get back kid, we're about to find out who's right," And the lights on Tron's suit started to glow.

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And once again I am evil. As before, please do review with any likes, dislikes and requests, and quid pro quo I'll review something of yours too! End of Line-


	8. Within A Mile Of Home

Greetings Users! This chapter is proudly sponsored by caffeine._ It's sweet, it's addictive, it's a regular party popper!_ Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, to DarkPhoenix1191 for pointing out where I'm going wrong and to Feenyfan4ever; who threatened to Derez me if I didn't get a move on.

**Disclaimer: Never was there a tale of more woe, than that of this writer who didn't own the property they was basing their story on. Bah.**

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_"Why can't you just give him a chance?" Hannah pleaded._

_"A chance to kill us!" Jessie yelled._

_"You don't know that!" Hannah screamed back. Jessie charged forward and Hannah braced herself for the tackled, but Jessie grabbed her arm instead and pulled her away. "HEY!"_

_"Get back kid, we're about to find out who's right," And the lights on Tron's suit started to glow._

_

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_"Jessie," Hannah breathed.

"I know," Jessie had Hannah by the arm, still tugging her away.

"He's blue,"

"I know," She gripped the disk in her hand until it started to cut into her palm. Hannah twisted herself out of Jessie's grip, heading went back. Tron's light was getting brighter and brighter, almost hypnotic in it's radiance. She stepped toward him until she was right beside him again, and she crouched down, her eyes wide with wonder. Then he stood up so suddenly that he knocked her backwards.

"Whoa!" she braced herself to hit the floor but he caught her by the wrist and pulled her up. "Thanks," she said dumbly. He stood tall, appraising his surroundings before finally settling his attention back on her.

"That's alright." He looked her up and down. "You're the user from before."

"Yeah, I'm Hannah," She moved his hand from her wrist into her hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you," she smiled shyly at him.

"Hey, there's another user over here. You know, the one that saved both your asses," Jessie said, striding towards them. She'd put her disk away. "Jessie's the name," she stuck out her hand too.

"I am Tron," She smirked up him as he shook her hand. Her guts felt like ice and her head was screaming at her with so many thoughts, love, hate, gratitude, jealousy and loathing that all she could think of was how she could make him like her. Hannah, the best at everything, even got the best program to look after her. She wanted him to like her, no matter how much she felt about program in general.

"Nice. Not every day you get to meet a celebrity," was what she came up with. Hannah glared at her, but Jessie didn't care. She strolled away, swinging her hips as she went back and sat on the pile of rubble they'd occupied before.

Anger and confusion mixed inside Hannah. What the hell did Jessie think she was doing?

"What is a celebrity?" Tron said, ripping her from her thoughts.

"Oh, uh, it's a person who's famous for something," Hannah said thickly.

"Right," he seemed to consider this for a moment. "Are you a celebrity?"

"Me? No, I couldn't be- I mean, I just," she jabbered, blushing wildly. She slipped her hand out of Tron's and tried to hide behind it. The fact he didn't understand what she was doing didn't make it feel any less embarrassing.

"Never mind," He said. "At least you managed to fix me." This time he smiled quite kindly at her.

"Oh." Hannah felt terribly small. "No, I didn't do that. Jessie did. You- You should thank her."

"Of course." He left Hannah and walked towards Jessie. She looked him up and down, but seemed to smile at him as he talked to her. He was gesturing something and she gave him a playful shove on the shoulder, laughing gracefully.

Something dropped in Hannah's stomach. Just a few moments ago Jessie was ready to kill him like he was nothing, and now she was being friendly? She glared at her sister in disbelief. Tron smiled at Jessie and she turned back, beckoning Hannah over.

"Hey kid, we thought you should be in on this. Since we're all travel buddies now, we should have some sort of a plan."

"Okay," Hannah grumbled.

"So what we've got to do is find a way out of this place." Her eyes flickered over to Tron, "Got any bright ideas?"

"We came out at Flynn's, " Hannah said, "Surely if we just got back there we could do the same thing as before and come right out the other side again,"

"That's not possible," Tron answered. "Flynn's was an entry point, one of several he put around the grid. The only output is the portal, across the Sea of Simulation."

"Oh, just somewhat problematic then," Jessie sighed,

"But we can get there, right?" Hannah said anxiously. Tron nodded.

"It's possible, but with the grid in its current state it will be difficult. We'll need to find a way to get across the sea, and we'll need to do it fast. The portal is only open for a millicycle."

"Whoa whoa, time out. That sounds way too short. What kind of time are we talking in user terms," Jessie said, running her hands through her hair.

"About eight hours," he said.

"What?" Jessie yelped. Her brown eyes were hugely wide. "We've already been here over a day! You are not telling me that we're-" she stopped and took a deep breath, tapping her hand against her leg. "Listen, I will not rest until I know my little sister is safe and sound and way outta here! You better tell me there's another way to get out of this place, or I swear to god-"

Tron looked at her, his serious face tinged with a wistful sadness.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. "There is no other way,"

Hannah sank to the floor, feeling dizzy. Stuck here? For the rest of her life? This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't.

"I won't accept that." Jessie said. She looked white as a sheet and her hands were trembling. She reached down and pulled Hannah to her feet. "There's got to be something I can do, something I can try."

"There is no other way." He insisted.

"Then I'll make another damn way!" Grabbing Hannah's hand she started to tug her forwards. "Come on Hannah. We're getting out of here now, even if Mr 'Fights for the Users' won't help."

"Jessie, we don't even know which way we're going!" Hannah looked back at Tron. He hadn't moved. She waved for him to come after them before Jessie tugged her arm again and they left him behind.

* * *

Jessie stopped tugging Hannah along once they reached the outskirts of the city. She reached out curiously and touched the skeleton shell of the newly toppled structure.

"Jeez, the whole place is torn up."

The ground had torn itself open and the shining streets and flickering lights that had led the way into the city before looked like they'd been showered in broken glass. It was the stillness of it all that freaked out Hannah. Everything was silent and motionless, but she still felt like she was standing on an ant hill and that at any moment more of the corrupt shambling programs could appear and take her away again. At least the rocks outside of the city limits had looked uninhabitable.

"Earthquakes," Hannah said sullenly. "I guess they _don't_ cover everything in marshmallows and gumdrops."

"Not helping Han," Jessie was pacing again and in a swift motion she had her disk off of her back and was spinning it on her finger.

"Neither are you," Hannah folded her arms and gazed at the moody sky. It looked as cheerful as she felt.

"Don't get stroppy; I'm trying to get you home,"

"Tron said there isn't a way," Her arms dropped and she knelt down, sitting on the floor with her legs folded under her.

"Yeah, and I trust him about as far as I can throw him." Jessie threw her disk into the ground and it stuck there, like a coin in a champagne cork. She wrenched it out and started spinning it again.

"He's actually a lot lighter than he looks."

"Shut up," Jessie turned her back on the city. "Until I know better, I reckon we should go for this portal across the sea."

"Nice one then, leaving behind the guy who could tell us where it is," Hannah sniped, reaching behind her and grabbing her own disk, spinning it on her wrist. Jessie growled.

"How many times do I have to tell you he's not a person?" she said icily.

"At least a twice more," Hannah returned.

"Grow up!"

"Make me,"

"Arrrrgh!" Jessie threw her disk into the ruins with a scream, slamming her foot into the ruins of the tower. It didn't budge and she hopped around, clutching her foot, "Damn it!"

"Don't do that, you'll hurt yourself." Hannah said sarcastically. Jessie stopped hopping as her disk whirled back to her. She plucked it out of the air and stomped back to Hannah.

"If you weren't my sister I swear, I'd punch you back into last week!"

"Oh that'd just be great!" Hannah sneered, "Then I wouldn't be here!" Jessie gripped her hand into a fist and went to pull it back. Hannah's smirk dropped. She was still holding her disk, whirling and deadly in her hand.

"I'm sorry!" she yelped, ducking behind her hands. Jessie grit her teeth and punched the air, slipping the disk onto her back again.

"God!" she yelled. She slumped forwards, the tension running out of her body. "Hannah, kid, you don't know how damn frustrating you can be sometimes. You've gotta remember we're in this together. We can't keep our frustration out on each other all the time; we'll end up hating each other." Jessie ran her hands through her hair, pushing it back over and over.

"I know, I'm sorry. Just stop telling me not to call Tron a person. I know he's a program, I know he's not real, but I keep forgetting not to call him a person. I can barely get my head around all these new names for things, so don't get angry when I call him, well, him instead of it."

"How about this, I'll get off your back about that if you swear to me you won't get attached to it. It's not like well see him again anyhow, but that's what I was worried about Han, that you'd have gotten to the portal and wanted to take him home and you wouldn't have been able to. Don't you remember the last time something like that happened? You cried for weeks," Jessie smirked weakly.

"That poor kitten," Hannah stared at her toes for a minute. It had been a ginger and white striped kitten and she'd found it next to it's dead mother. It had mewed at her, it's eyes still closed and she'd been able to hold it in one hand. She'd called him Clive.

"Mom was allergic kid; there was nothing we could do. You had to let her go," Jessie nudged her shoulder gently. Hannah looked up at her with mournful eyes.

"Yeah, I know," She sighed.

"Look, see, you're still sad about that now. Imagine if he'd come with us and you'd started to think of him like he was a friend and had to leave him behind like that. If he broke your heart I'd never forgive him, and hell, I don't know if I'd be able to fix you," She lifted Hannah's chin and gave her a pat on the arm. "I'd be heartbroken too,"

"Maybe I'm stronger than that," Hannah tried. Jessie nodded.

"Maybe. Maybe you're stronger than me, but as long as I'm around, you know how I'll be. I'm your big sister, and there are things big sisters have to do. Protecting little sisters is one of them," Hannah gave a quiet laugh.

"Thanks, I guess."

"No problems kid. I don't even think about it," She swept Hannah into a quick fierce hug and then turned away again, pacing.

"All we have to do is find and reach the portal. That's it. No matter what Tron said, there's a chance it'll still be open."

"So we should go find the Sea of Simulation then," Hannah considered, tapping her chin.

"That's about the gist of it." Jessie slapped her hand against her leg, her pacing reduced to her practically spinning on her heels. "The river," she said, clicking her fingers. "The river at the bottom of the cliff I fell down, I bet that leads to the ocean!"

"You know which way it is?" Hannah looked around, wondering of there was a Sea that they'd missed hiding around a corner somewhere. What she saw was rather different.

"I know,"

Jessie whipped around, glaring at Tron for a moment as he emerged from his hiding place.

"So you're stalking us now?" she hissed. She stood protectively in front of Hannah, her hands on her hips.

"I have no other objectives than to help you." He said with a shrug.

"Well maybe we're okay on our own," She replied.

"Jessie, I-" Jessie put a finger on Hannah's lips.

"Do you know the way to the portal?" he asked simply.

"That's none of your business," Jessie retorted. Hannah smacked her hand away, ducking under Jessie's arm and standing in her way.

"Hey, I said he should come!" she told her. Jessie's eyes twitched.

"Kid, you're an idiot, what did I just say?"

"I know, I know," Hannah turned to Tron.

"Can you help us get to the portal?"

"Yes," he said, taking another step forward. Hannah smiled at him, the blush rising in her cheeks again.

"Well, there." She whipped around to Jessie. "He can help us, like a navigator. He's a good fighter too; he can fight with us if we get into trouble. There's no reason to send him away," Jessie sent her a look so cold she thought she'd freeze in place. Her smile dropped.

"Fine," Jessie said amiably, all the tension gone form her body as thought she'd never been angry at all. "Sounds good,"

"Good," Hannah repeated. Jessie pulled her into another hug and whispered in her ear.

"You damned well better remember what I said kid. If you end up hurting yourself I'm not going be happy."

"Fine,"

Tron folded his arms.

"Are we going?"

"Yeah, we are," Hannah said, breaking away from her sister. "Lead the way,"

So, they started to walk.

* * *

Hannah felt excited as soon as she heard the sound of waves crashing against the shore. Finally, something in this place which wasn't completely alien. She jogged forwards, past Tron to get a closer look. Jessie followed, her own curiosity roused. Soon they were all standing on a beach looking out over the sea. The sand was dark, and had the same glassy look as everything in the world seemed to. Even the Sea looked like it was made from tiny squares. She bent down to get a closer look. The water fluoresced like a used glow stick, dim but still shining. Her hand reached out towards it, but before she could touch it, someone grabbed her hand.

"Don't touch the water," Tron warned. He was crouched next to her, a strange look in his eye.

"Why?" Jessie asked. She toed the sand uneasily. "What's wrong with it?"

"It's tainted. There are viruses in there, worms and malbits. Any disturbance brings them to the surface. You've got to be careful,"

"Why are there viruses here? I thought this was a closed system?" Jessie asked. Tron sighed.

"CLU is responsible for this. The Sea is a vast, untameable place, bigger than the Outlands and infinitely more powerful. CLU wanted to control everything, so he put viruses in the water to make sure anything in there that he couldn't control was destroyed. It worked better than he ever imagined."

"Who's CLU?" Hannah blinked up at Tron.

"He was a program, made in the image of the creator to maintain the system whilst he was away. What he didn't understand was that programs can be very literal. Flynn told CLU he wanted to make the perfect system, so CLU made the perfect system. Everyone was running at their maximum capacity, but the system wasn't free. Everything that defied him he either repurposed or destroyed. He even tried to get into your world, to make that perfect too."

"But you stopped him?" Hannah said,

"I-" Tron "I did what I could," His hand clenched into a fist in the sand.

"So he's gone now, CLU got derezzed?" Hannah continued.

"Yes, he was reintegrated by Flynn. It destroyed them both," Tron said sadly. Hannah patted him awkwardly on the shoulder.

"As much as I'm loving the history lesson, I'm not seeing a bridge here." Jessie interjected. Hannah stood up and looked around. A few scattered rocks rose like spires above the surface of the water, twisted and spindly, but Jessie was right there was no way to get to the tower she could just make out, shining in the distance.

"How do we get across?" Hannah asked. Tron stood too, gazing along the shore line.

"The solar sailor is gone." He said with a frown. "There used to be a station around here, we would have been able to ride it across."

"Yeah, so how _do_ we get across?" Hannah asked desperately. The waves lapped the shoreline, filling the silence as Tron looked lost for words.

"Well," Jessie said. finally, "we're users. Why don't we just make something?" Tron stared at her.

"You can do that?"

"Yeah, I can. My disk has administrative clearance." She said smartly. Tron looked her up and down, like he was seeing her for the first time.

"That's impossible. Only one person ever had access to that." he said.

"Yeah, and his legacy was up for grabs. What else was I going to do with it?" Jessie said, flipping her hair.

"With what?" Hannah asked. She had a sinking feeling she wasn't going to like this. A wave crashed against one of the rocky spires in the distance and it crumbled. Jessie raised an eyebrow and pulled something familiar from her back.

"Kevin Flynn's identity disk,"

* * *

My my my, whatever shall come of_ this_? Tune in next time for excitement, adventure and camaraderie! Please do review, and quid pro quo, I shall review one of your stories too. Bribery? Yeah, I'm not above it at all. - End of Line -


	9. Atlantic City

Greetings Users! I apologise for the lateness of this chapter but life has been busy, and my muse has finally came back today. I dedicate this to her, my sweetheart.

**Disclaimer: Seeing as no one got me the TRON franchise for my birthday, I own nothing but the OC's.**

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* * *

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"_Well, we're users. Why don't we just make something?" Jessie said. Tron stared at her,_

"_You can do that?"_

"_Yeah, I can. My disk has administrative clearance." She said smartly. Tron frowned._

"_That's impossible. Only one person ever had access to that."_

"_Yeah, and his legacy was up for grabs. What else was I going to do with it?"_

"_With what?" Hannah asked._

"_Kevin Flynn's identity disk,"_

_

* * *

_

Jessie definitely hadn't been expecting the reaction she got. Tron sprang to life like a clockwork toy wound up too tight, pushing roughly past Hannah, who tripped over her own feet and tumbled onto the sand, landing with a muffled splash. He snatched the disk from Jessie's hand and activated it, turning it until he found what he was looking for. A file sprang to life, a peripheral video. From the second it began Tron was transfixed.

"Flynn," the sound tore itself from his throat as he watched the file play, the dreadful images branding themselves into his memory. Jessie watched grimly as the scene played out and the Flynn in the video dragged CLU back into himself, his body twisting, distorting and finally bursting into a pulse of destruction. The image turned to static but Tron still held on, his eyes scanning the data for any signs that the static would fade and he might see Flynn again. The minutes ticked past but the scene didn't change. The waves lapped loudly against the shore, their soothing tone in rhythm with the buzzing audio. Finally Jessie prised the disk out of Tron's hands, deactivating it. Hannah got up from the floor, dusting herself down. She put a hand on Tron's arm as he stood there, frozen still as a statue.

"Tron, are you okay?" she asked him. He shook his head and frowned deeply, lines appearing on his face like he'd aged a decade. After a long moment he looked back at Hannah, his hazel eyes finding her and rooting her to the spot with their intensity.

"He was my friend," he said lowly. Hannah felt tears creep to her eyes. He looked achingly sad.

"I'm sorry," she said, giving him a tentative hug. He didn't seem to notice, so she gave him a quick squeeze and let go quickly, her cheeks flushed red. Jessie groaned and rolled her eyes.

"That must have happened a long time ago, right?" she said, her eyes flickering over to him and then back, like she was afraid he'd notice. Tron collected himself.

"Yes, it was many cycles ago now. I had hoped that he'd survived somehow."

"That blast, is that how this place got to be ruined like this?" Hannah asked him.

"I can only assume so. I was elsewhere when it happened, so I don't know the details, but when I got back to The Grid, it was as you found it when you arrived, a wasteland. Everything that Flynn put into the system was corrupted when he was destroyed."

"What about you?" Jessie asked. She looked him up and down again with a critical eye. "You got off lightly compared to everything else we've seen,"

"I don't know why I'm like this," Tron said contemplatively. "Maybe it was because I was in the Sea, and that amount of unprocessed data gave me some protection. It might be because whilst I'm on the Grid I wasn't created by Flynn, so I was exempt." He looked out over the sea. "I even wondered if Flynn survived and he saved me," He looked down at Hannah, who had stopped touching him but still stood close by. "I believe you are pressed for time," he told her.

"I thought you said we were already too late," Jessie snapped at him sullenly. Hannah glanced at her. She wished Jessie would stop acting so oddly. She'd only ever seen her act like this once before and that had been after she'd gotten the worst news of her life. What happened to her when they'd been separated? What could she have seen? What did she do? Jessie gave her an angry looking glare and she hastily looked away. Her blood ran cold as ice.

"Guys, we need to move, now" Hannah said urgently. She pointed out at the sea and in the distance strange shaped wave was heading straight for them. Tron strained to look at it, barely able to distinguish the shape under the surface. His eyes widened and he grabbed Hannah by the arm. She cowered as he leant over her, intimidating and resolute.

"Did you touch the water?" he demanded. She nodded quickly.

"Yeah, when I fell. It wasn't much, I'm dry already," She showed him her hand.

"That's not important," he told her seriously, "It's already scanned your code. It's coming after you and it knows you're a user." He looked meaningfully at Jessie. "Can you make anything with that disk that flies?" She faltered, looking flustered, her face losing the angry colour she'd worked up.

"Well, I don't know, I've not tried anything like that."

"Try it now, and hurry," He glanced at the shadow under the water. It was growing quickly on the horizon.

"What do I do?" Hannah asked him. He hesitated at the complete trust in her eyes.

"You get away from here. When Jessie's done, you get to the portal as fast as you can." He told her.

"What if it's closed?" She fretted, watching Jessie work frantically, "What if we don't get through?"

"It's safer there than it is here. That's a worm coming, and it's a big one. They're malicious and they're coming for you." He said seriously.

"After me?" she breathed. The shadow loomed closer with each passing moment.

"Whatever you do, don't let it get to you. It'll eat you whole if it can." She lost her breath when he looked into her eyes. How could she ever believe Jessie when she said programs couldn't feel? "I won't let that happen to you. I will not fail another User."

"What about you?" she demanded.

"I stay and I fight. That's what I do," He said, reaching for his disk.

"That's not acceptable," she said, swatting his arm away boldly. "You're in as much danger as I am,"

"This isn't a negotiation," he told her, grabbing his disk and activating it. Jessie was on the floor, frantically hitting at the code, her hands trembling. Hannah took out her own disk.

"This isn't working," Jessie cried. The spindly looking construction she was working on disintegrated before their eyes.

"You can help her," Tron ordered.

"Okay," she left his side and crouched next to her sister. Jessie was glaring at the code, her hands turning it over and over. Hannah stopped her. "What do we do?"

"We make something, anything. It's got to fly, and it has to fit people in it... I can't think; I don't know anything about planes!" she said, wringing her hands. Hannah looked out to towards the sea. On the shoreline, Tron stood resolutely facing the growing shadow. It broke the surface as she watched, rearing up its ugly head and letting out a deafening scream, like nails on a chalkboard. It was three stories tall at least and it hadn't even gotten out of the water fully. Jessie turned around and dropped the disk, where it deactivated with a soft whirring sound. Her face was white as a sheet.

The thing was coming fast than they could have imagined. Its enormous size didn't make it any less dynamic. That was the last rational though Hannah had before the worm embedded itself on the shore and she started to scream. Jessie was up in a flash, but the shock of the virus crashing into the beach threw her down again. Hannah landed on Flynn's disk and clipped it hurriedly to her back before grabbing Jessie's hand and pulling her up. The worm roared wildly and Hannah thought she'd explode. Every fibre of her being shook at its terrible cry and she and Jessie fell to their knees, clutching their heads.

Jessie was barely thinking when she heard a sound over the noise. After what seemed like hours of pain, Tron appeared in her line of vision, tugging her up from the sand. The worm was trying to clamber onto the rocky terrain, its huge gelatinous mass writhing wildly as it tried to move without having any limbs. Out of the water it looked like a half melted slug, aside from its sharp, beak like mouth which snapped opened and shut, bleating its ear piercing screech. Then Jessie saw its eyes and she knew it had seen her too.

"Move!" Tron commanded, the full force of his presence coming to the fore. Jessie obeyed him without question, struggling out of the sand as her head pounded like a drum. She barely even knew she was still tugging Hannah along behind her, her hand trapped in an iron grip. They ran together as fast as their legs would carry them, as the worm heaved itself forward, crowing as it finally lurched fully onto the grid.

Hannah pumped her legs, her eyes rolling in her head as the creature behind them shifted and rolled in its clumsy attempt to follow them. It was slower on land than in the water, but whatever advantage that fact gave them was mooted by the fact it was so enormous that even if it gained just a little ground it might be able to reach them with its cruel jaws. They darted towards the city and whatever protection it might offer them, but it was a long run between the shores outlands and the grid. They hurtled around a sharp bend and Hannah tumbled, her hand slipping for Jessie's. The screaming got louder and Hannah squeezed her eyes shut against the sound of her deresolution.

"Come on!" She was pulled up by a firm hand and throw over someone's shoulder. She opened her eyes and saw the ground moving beneath her, but she was completely immobilised by the noise. It when she was put down and pushed through a small hole and it got very dark that she realised they had found a cave to conceal themselves in and for the moment, they were safe.

The worm thundered by their hiding place, screaming and snapping at the ground, infuriated by its sudden denial of a kill. Hannah saw the shadow of the beast cross what little light streamed into the cave and it was lit only by the suits of the three people inside.

Then, like a siren being switched off, the noise stopped. Disorientated, Hannah tried to stop the ringing in her ears. Jessie was by her side as she got up from the floor. Hannah gave her a brief nod to tell her she was fine, and then Jessie went to the mouth of the cave and peered outside. She only had time for the briefest glance before she had to dart back inside, cursing.

"It's still out there!" she whispered urgently. She scratched her arm over and over, her complete inability to protect her sister sitting like a lead weight in her stomach. Tron had a look himself and then joined them.

"This cover won't hide us for long. Any virus that has been in the sea long enough to mutate into a worm that size should have the capability to find us, and soon." Hannah bit her lip nervously. Jessie stood at her full height, her frame wracked with stress.

"Jessie," she started.

"Can it kid, this isn't your fault."

"No, please, listen," she said, getting up and stepping into Jessie's line of vision, "I-"

"Han, not now!" Jessie whispered desperately, digging her fingernails deeper into her arm and taking a shuddering breath. "Not now!"

"Quiet," Tron said and they both fell silent. Hannah glanced at Jessie's hands and her white knuckles as she drove her fingers into the black material that covered her forearm. Without a word she took Jessie's hands. Jessie pulled away quickly, a look of rage flitting over her face. Hannah grabbed her hands again, pulling them into her chest and resting her chin on them. Jessie tried to tug herself away, but Hannah held on. Outside, the worm started to scream again.

Hannah wanted to say something to make Jessie feel better. She wanted to do something that would make her stop hurting so badly. Jessie gave one last half hearted tug as the ground around them began to shake. Hannah stood still and steady just looking at her older sister. With the screaming, it wouldn't have mattered if she'd tried to talk anyway, Jessie wouldn't hear her. So she tried to put it into her touch. She held Jessie's hands to her heart and she looked Jessie in the eye. It seemed like the first time she'd really looked at her sister in years.

Jessie was older than she wanted to be. Her hair was still as red and thick as it ever was, but she had more lines around her eyes than Hannah ever remembered, and her face was pale and worn out. She wondered if she looked the same, or if the seven years difference in their ages weighted heavily on Jessie. Something she knew for sure was that her sister didn't have all the answers this time. Jessie wasn't a superhero. She didn't know how she felt about that knowledge, but it made something inside her harder. Maybe she'd protect Jessie, just this once.

Dust swept through the air as the worm thrashed around, shrieking for its prey.

Tron watched the two women as they held onto each other. Both of them were completely ineffective, and nothing he knew about Users correlated with their behaviour. But, they were Users, humans and Flynn had once told him they didn't have plans really. They just did what it looked like they should be doing. Tron spied Flynn's disk on Hannah's back and pulled out his own, activating it.

There wasn't much chance he'd be able to defeat the worm. He was the best fighter on the grid, but its sheer size was overwhelming. Hitting it wouldn't be a problem, but finding an area to strike effectively would be. He weighed his options and decided it didn't matter. His most imperative thought was to fight for the Users, and that was what he would do. He left without saying goodbye.

The scream juddered and skipped like a scratched record. It was only when its bulk slammed to the ground and Hannah and Jessie slammed to the ground that they realised what had happened.

"Tron," Hannah breathed as the ground shook again, crumbling the walls of their hideaway. Jessie took her disk off of her back and activated it, her pale, tear streaked face stony and cold. Hannah joined her, activating her own disk, faintly surprised that Jessie didn't order her to stay behind. They stood together, and then, as one, they ran for the outside, and the worm that threatened them all.

The world they knew was full of the virus. Its huge hulk stretched around their cave. Jessie threw her disk first. It bounced of the shell of the creature, slamming back into her full force. She stretched out her arm to catch it and flew along the ground. Hannah tried next, running at it and hurling the disk at its face. It soared up through the air and scratched its eye, a shower of crystal cubes falling from above her as the disk returned. The monster didn't seem hurt so much as enraged. Jessie hurtled in front of Hannah and aimed for its face as well, her disk flying through up and carving a rent in its chin. It screamed and Hannah lost track of everything around her. Its beak thundered towards her as she stood, dazed and defenceless. Just as it was about to crush her, a hand grabbed her by the waist and pulled her out of harm's way.

"Tron," she said gratefully, getting back up as the three of them stood before the worm. Twisting its monstrous head around to see with its good eye, it caught sight of them and the beak came down again, snapping and deadly. They scattered, Tron throwing his disks with a precision Hannah never thought was possible, only the have the creature lurch backwards, catching the weapons on its protected belly. Jessie tried to circle behind it, but it watched her and the beak came down once again.

Jessie screamed and then Hannah lost track of her.

"NO!" she yelled and the beak came for her. She darted out of the way, her body running completely on adrenaline. She pulled the second disk from her back and lit it, throwing two at once in unrestrained fury. Tron slammed his disk into the head of the worm as the beak came down again and again, flipping out of the way and hurling his disk as it attacked him over and over, rearing up after each plunge. Its single beady eye twitched as it dove towards Tron yet again, and he lurched backwards to avoid the strike, his eyes widening as he stumbled and found his back to the wall. The great gaping beak came at him again and he threw his disk, but it was too late and he was gone/

Hannah lost her words but kept throwing the disks in blind rage. The worm surveyed her like a cat watching a mouse, its beak clicking and cocking its head to keep its good eye on her. She couldn't see if her random throws were doing any damage at all, nor did she care if the worm killed her. All she wanted was to destroy it. She dove out of the way, landing hard on her stomach as she caught its head plunging towards her and she sliced it across the face with her disks, yelling like an animal. It reared up and she pulled herself onto her hands and knees, crawling through the rubble to avoid the next strike. It crowed above her and her hands went to her ears, stopping her short and in that singular moment, of clarity, Hannah knew it had beaten her. Unable to turn around, she closed her eyes and hoped that whatever happened to her, it would be quick.

* * *

TA-DA! That's the end of that chapter and the next one is coming soon. I loved writing it so hopefully you guys will like reading it too. As with my last few chapters, I extent this invitation, all those who review my work, quid pro quo, I shall review something of yours as well. ~End of Line~


	10. Stockholm Syndrome

Greetings Users! Hope you've all been well and are still enjoying this, so lets get on with the show! **Disclaimer: Still sadly lacking in Tron ownership, gosh darn it.**

* * *

_In that singular moment, of clarity, Hannah knew it had beaten her. _

_Unable to turn around, she closed her eyes and hoped that whatever happened to her, it would be quick._

_..._

_

* * *

_

_CLICK!_

'_...__you better promise me, I'll be back in time-'_

Hannah wrenched herself upright as she woke, her wide eyes scanning the room wildly. She patted the bed beneath her and scrunched the duvet into her balled fists. It was soft, it was warm and it was hers. She could barely believe her eyes. She was home.

She sank back into her sheets. She was really, really home. That song was coming from her radio, and from the window she could hear the first sounds of the early morning traffic and she could smell something _terrible_ in the room with her. She snapped her head towards it; on the chair she'd dragged in the night before, Jessie was sleeping gave an excited squeak and leapt on her sister, ignoring the slight crunching sound her rank clothes made. Jessie jerked awake, her unfocused eyes blearily trying to distinguish her sister from the rest of the fuzzy looking room.

"Mornin' spider monkey," she croaked out. Hannah buried her head into Jessie's arms as they wrapped weakly around her. "Have a bad dream or something?" she murmured, shifting uncomfortably in the chair.

"The worst," Hannah told her. She lifted her head and looked up at her sister. "We made this stupid bet and you got sucked into a video game and we got separated, and I was scared, this guy rescued me and we found each other again but you were being weird and really mean! These horrible zombies kept chasing us and a huge worm ate us!" she made wild circling motioned with her arms trying to describe how big the worm was. Jessie nodded slowly.

"Yeah, that sounds like a nightmare to me." She said sagely. "Bacon?" She grasped Hannah by her arms, extracting her from the chair and sitting her on the floor gently. Hannah watched her get up awkwardly from the chair, stretch until her joint gave a satisfying crack and wander out of the room, heading for the kitchen. She got up from the floor, slapped her alarm off and wriggled her feet into her slippers.

"So, what happened last night? I called you, we ate snacks- then what did we do?" She rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands. "I can't remember a thing after that,"

"Hm? Last night?" Jessie asked.

"Yeah," Hannah looked out her window towards Flynn's, the gates stubbornly closed and the lights all off. The huge rotting sign for Tron stood barely illuminated in the sunlight of the slowly breaking dawn.

"Well, you know, we went out, to that little bar down by fourth and main, just to get away from it all. When we got back, you were pretty much out of it, so I put you to bed and made myself at home," she said. Hannah heard the fridge door open and shut, and the clank of her frying pan being set onto the hob.

"We went out?" she ran a brush through her short hair, watching reflection in the dresser mirror and tapping it on the side distractedly as the image flickered.

"Yeah, and we stayed there for way too long." Jessie mused from the kitchen. "You put a couple of dollars in the jukebox and wouldn't let us leave 'til all your songs had played. It got pretty mad at you, but you put my favourite song on at the end. You really don't remember?" Hannah put the brush down and tried to think. All that came back to her was the strangest scream, like breaking metal and nails on a chalkboard. She shook the sound away. It was just part of that really freaky dream.

"No, I must have been out of it. You didn't order doubles when I said singles again, did you? You now I hate it when you do that, you know I can't keep up with you." She groused.

"No, I was good, I promise." Jessie called back and Hannah smiled to herself.

"It's funny, I don't feel hung over at all, and I must've only had a couple of hours sleep, unless it's Sunday already," she gave a little laugh. "But you'd kill me if I slept in that much, you always tell me; sleep when you're dead, right?"

Jessie didn't answer. Hannah placed the brush down on her dresser. "Jessie?" she called out. The apartment was silent. "You in the bathroom or something?" She grabbed her dressing gown and padded out of the room towards the toilet, stopping outside and looking at the bottom of the closed door. There wasn't a light on, so she knocked gently on the wood. "Jess?" The door swung open at her touch and Hannah saw that the room was empty. She crept into the room and checked behind the door and the shower curtain, but Jessie wasn't there either. She stomped into the kitchen and frowned, growling in the back of her throat.

"You're too old for hide and seek Jess." She yelled. She stood still, trying to hear something that would give away Jessie's hiding place but everything was silent. Even the music was gone and she didn't remember turning her alarm off. She liked Huey Lewis. "You're freaking me out!" she called. Still no one answered and she went to turn away when something caught her eye. She walked towards her oven and the empty hob. She waved her hand over it, it wasn't hot. She frowned. She'd heard Jessie making bacon, but where was everything, the frying pan, the plates, the food? She marched into the lounge, checked her bedroom and finally stood with her legs akimbo in the hall and her hands on her hips.

"This_ isn't_ funny Jessica Louise Harrison, if you are in this apartment and playing a trick on me I swear I will not speak to you again, not ever. I really mean it this time. I am _so not _in the mood for games right now," she ground out. Her eyes flittered from door to door but nothing moved, and nothing breathed. She felt a few minutes tick by, but nothing happened and, suddenly drained, she sagged where she stood and sank onto her hardwood floor. Jessie wasn't there. She tried to make sense of that. There was no bacon. That didn't make sense either. It was completely silent, and she realised that that wasn't right. She should've heard cars outside, or birds in the trees, the wind whistling through the gap in her window frame; anything but silence. She tried blocking her ears and letting go but nothing changed. Her blood ran cold.

"I'm not deaf," she said, and she heard her own voice. She got up on wobbly legs and went back to her bedroom, heading over the window. It was open a crack and she could feel cold air rushing though it, but there was still no sound. She pushed the window up and stuck her head out into the outside world. It was empty. The low lights of the sun seemed to have frozen where they were, bathing the world in a sepia tone, all apart from the sky above her. She looked directly up and all she could see were stars. She'd never seen a sunrise like it. She was brought back to earth by her bedroom door slamming shut. She grumbled to herself as she got back in and trudged over to it. She would really hate this old building if every time she opened her window the doors slammed. She grabbed the handle and swore.

"Great, now the door jams! Jessie I will kill you! Why aren't you here?" She stomped back to the window, leaning tiredly against the frame and looking out onto the rotting billboards facing her window. "Some dream, huh Tron?" She said. "What's more impossible; non-existent bacon and a disappearing sister or getting sucked into a videogame?" The billboard was silent, just like everything else and Hannah laughed to herself. She could almost believe the videogame was real. She shuddered at the thought, cold all over. That nightmare worm would probably haunt her dreams for a while after all this was done. The light started to fade on the horizon. Hannah slumped onto her window sill, perching on the edge. Funny, she'd thought it was dawn. Maybe Jessie had let her sleep in all day.

As the light faded from the world, she saw the city skyscrapers blot themselves out of existence, disappearing into the inky black, dotted with jagged white glowing lines. She blinked. The vision persisted. She rubbed her eyes as the darkness approached like a tidal wave in slow motion, swallowing up the city.

She wanted to get up and run away, but her door was jammed. The closer the darkness came the more abstract everything around her seemed. Her limbs felt too heavy to move and numbness crept over her, smothering her like a blanket. The deep sweeping blackness swept onwards.

"What do I do?" she asked the billboard. Space Paranoids didn't have any answers, and there was no one else to ask. "There's no one to save me this time," she said softly.

The blackness got closer.

"But if this is a dream too,"

It razed the building three blocks away.

"I guess I'll have to wake myself up."

Flynn's went dark.

"I'll save myself,"

And with that, she let herself fall from the window.

* * *

Tron looked around as he got up from the floor of the platform. He knew exactly where he was and exactly what was going on. He'd been attacked by a worm before, the first time he'd been hurled into the Sea of Simulation. They fed on a programs resources, drained their energy and put them in a simulation, something have trouble distinguishing as fictional and so couldn't escape, or wouldn't want to. He didn't know quite how it would affect the users, but he knew exactly which scenario from his past the virus would put him into.

"Tron?" a soft feminine voice called out to him, her voice as clear as a bell. He looked around for her and smiled when he saw Yori's face. Flynn stood beside her, smirking and whispering something into her ear. She giggled and stepped towards Tron.

"Yori," he breathed. She smiled angelically as her name dropped from his lips like a prayer. Without a word she reached for his face and pressed her lips to his, her eyelashes fluttering until she pulled away with a soft sigh. Yori had fallen in love with the User ideal of love as soon as she'd heard about it and Tron hadn't complained. He could see Flynn rolling his eyes as Yori dragged Tron towards him, holding his hand.

"I swear, if you two keep this up I'm going to have to write some PDA etiquette functions into you," he said with a grin. Tron found himself smiling, even as he felt his energy being drained from holding Yori's hand.

"There's no need to worry about that, we'll 'get a room', as you Users say," he told Flynn, still quite proud of his slang. Flynn burst out laughing, clapping Tron on the arm.

"Say the word and I'll make you something special," he said with a wink. Yori glanced at him curiously and seemed quite interested. Tron doubted he'd ever be sure if she'd know exactly what Flynn had been referring to.

No matter how many times he lived though these moments, in his memories or a malicious simulation, Tron always felt a kind of peace. It was the day he'd left the old system to help build the Grid. He certainly hadn't understood what Flynn had meant by something special and in some way he still didn't, but he'd been happy that he'd made Flynn laugh, something that the cares of overseeing a city would mostly take away from him. He let go of Yori's hand.

"I know you will," he said. Flynn was still smirking.

"There you go again, thinking I've got a plan." He joked. Tron nodded.

"Even if you don't, I'm sure you'll just do what it looks like you're meant to be doing and it'll work out somehow," he said, backing away from them. Yori frowned, but didn't move. She computed that something was wrong, but she didn't know what yet. Flynn hadn't picked up on it.

"See, that's what I wanted to talk to you about, I have a plan this time, and- Wait!" He stopped mid spiel and yelled as Tron took off full pelt towards the edge of the platform.

"No!" Yori screamed and Tron hesitated. He almost stopped but he knew there was only one was to escape being corrupted or derezzed outside of the simulation and that was to take yourself out of it. He didn't look back as he soared off the edge and dashed himself to pieces on the data below.

* * *

The sound of waves and birdsong woke Jessie up. She blinked lazily as sunlight streamed through a nearby window, the light curtains billowing softly in the summer breeze. She didn't have a clue where she was, but she wasn't all that worried. She'd woken up plenty of times in someone else's bed and come out none the worse for it. This was such a nice bed though and the person beside her was warm and comfortable and curled up into her back, one muscular arm draped over her side, his thumb skimming the smooth skin of her stomach.

She sighed lightly and shut her eyes again. Five more minutes, she told herself. Five more minutes and then I'll get up, make my excuses and go home. She shifted slightly in the bed, trying to remember the name of her companion, but nothing came back except the crazy nightmare she'd had about her and Hannah being chased by monsters inside a computer. Taking a deep breath, she revelled in the peace of the moment.

"WAKE UP MOMMY!" She was jarred awake by the force of a little person sitting on her, what she'd gauge to be a six year old by the weight. They rolled away as she sat up, grasping her chest and trying to breathe. Damn, the little tyke felt like it was rocket propelled. The man beside her rolled over and sat up, leaning over and putting his arm around her. She flinched unconsciously at the contact but was stopped by the sound of a familiar voice.

"Well, that was different." He commented. Jessie gaped at him.

"Andrew?" She whispered. He nodded, running a hand through his short messy hair.

"Last time I checked. You okay? You look spooked." he asked. She blinked but he didn't disappear, so she threw her arms around him and held on for dear life.

"How are you here? How can you be here?" she asked him. He stroked circles on her back with one hand and shrugged at the little girl who looked on with an impatient frown.

"We came by train last time I checked. I managed to get the time off work by getting Shane to cover for me at the last minute and here we are in California, our first proper family vacation." He played with a lock of her hair. "First day too, I've got no idea what we should do first."

"Disney!" yelled the little girl, giggling impishly. Andrew patted her on the head and pointed to the door. She ignored him. When Jessie pulled away she tried to wipe her eyes without him noticing. Andrew took hold of her hand gently.

"Jessie?"

"What's wrong Mommy?" the little girl asked her, her small hands grasping Jessie's pyjama top. Jessie just looked at Andrew, and at his left hand. She lifted her own and stared at the diamond ring on her finger.

"I don't know what's going on," she whispered. The ring wasn't huge, a simple gold band studded with tiny rubies and diamonds, but it was beautiful and it was hers. Somehow Andrew was here and they were married with a beautiful red haired daughter. "But I'm so glad I'm here," She threw herself back into Andrew's arms and sighed. He even smelt the same as she remembered.

He smelt the way she remembered he did before the car crash that killed him five years ago and left her completely infertile.

* * *

_Like, OMG! The sensationalism of it! I'd love it if you would review and drop your thoughts in, and quid pro quo I'll review something of yours too. Other that that, hope you've enjoyed this chapter and see you next time ~End of Line~_


	11. Forever Autumn

Greetings Users! This ones been a bit of a long time coming but I'm finding my time eaten up by other things. I will finish this though, there's no doubt about that. Anyway** Disclaimer: I own nothing but the OCs, yadda yadda yadda.**  


* * *

"_I don't know what's going on," she whispered. The ring wasn't huge, a simple gold band studded with tiny rubies and diamonds, but it was beautiful and it was hers. Somehow Andrew was here and they were married with a beautiful red haired daughter. "But I'm so glad I'm here," She threw herself back into Andrew's arms and sighed. He even smelt the same as she remembered._

_He smelt the way she remembered he did before the car crash that killed him five years ago and left her completely infertile. _

* * *

Jessie was on the hotel balcony watching the sun rise over the beach. The air felt good on her skin after the tightness of the black gaming suit she'd worn on the grid. She closed her eyes and listened to the waves. She was dressed in white for the first time in a long time.

She'd been twenty two when she'd been in the crash that had killed her boyfriend. They'd both been drinking and neither of them were wearing seatbelts, so when another car had drifted onto their side of the road neither of them stood a chance. Andrew had smashed through the windscreen and been killed instantly, shredded by the glass and pulverised by the force of smashing headfirst into the road. She'd barely survived herself, staying in the car but rupturing her kidneys and her uterus and breaking more bones than she could name. The driver of the other car had been having a stroke, so his passenger had called for help and in less than an hour she'd been on the operating table. It didn't matter in the end. They managed to patch up her kidneys, but there was no way to save what was left. On the verge of bleeding out, they'd clamped what they could and given her a complete hysterectomy to save her life.

Resting her chin in her palms, she watched a bird as it skimmed over the sea, twisting gracefully in the wind. Her red hair flew around her and a pair of arms encircled her from behind.

"Hey petal, you ready to go?" Andrew asked her, her lips so close to the side of her face that she could feel his breath on her ear. She shivered.

"Yeah, is Amy ready?" She turned in his arms and embraced him. Amy poked her head around the door, a wide grin on her face.

"I'm ready, let's go now!" the girl said with as much authority as a six year old could muster, skipping across the room and picking up a too large bag of sandwiches Andrew had made. "I wanna go to Disney!" she yelled, her round face lit up with an enormous toothy smile. Andrew laughed into Jessie's hair.

"She knows what she wants," Jessie commented and Andrew pulled away, smirking.

"I wonder where she gets that from." He took the bag from Amy and gave her a little camera. "We should make a move, or it'll get crowded before we've done anything." He opened the door and Amy sprinted out. Andrew went white as she disappeared down the corridor. "Amy!" he called after her. He glanced nervously back at Jessie. "I'll meet you by the car," he said quickly and he took off after the six year old sprinter.

Jessie was alone.

She looked out at the ocean again, gripping the balcony rail. She couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry or scream. What do you do in this situation? She had no one to protect but herself and she'd always done that by pushing people away but she was trapped here, cornered by a husband and a daughter.

Her head was screaming that this was a dream, that she should escape, get rid of them and run until there was nothing left of her, but her heart was begging her to stay. She gripped the rail until her knuckles were white.

"What do I do?" she asked the wind. It didn't reply, so she went inside and grabbed some sunglasses and her bag. A soft 'phut' noise caught her attention. She turned to the wall. The plasma screen TV had turned itself on. It wasn't showing a channel, just static. Jessie went to the wall and pressed the power button, but the TV stayed on. She could hear something, a soft breathing sound. She put her head near the speaker, trying to make it out.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"** said a small, hopeful voice.

Her eyes widened.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"** it said. She started to back away.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"** She strode away from the TV, rummaging through her bag until she found her phone. Opening the door, she hit Andrew's number. He picked it up within one ring.

"What's up?" Andrew's breathless voice asked. She heard Amy wailing in the background.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"** the TV insisted.

"Oh, I forget where we parked the car," Jessie said, closing the door and walking away.

* * *

Jessie had been out of breath for hours. Her legs ached, her shoulders were burnt and Amy was bursting with excited energy, picking at candyfloss and jabbering about how in the parade, Mickey mouse waved specially at _her_. Andrew humoured her whilst Jessie rested her exhausted head on the table. Much to Jessie's annoyance Amy wasn't tall enough to go on most of the rollercoasters, so they spent most of their time either looking for princesses or going around 'It's A Small World'. Andrew had to go the last three rounds alone after Jessie had vehemently told him that one more chorus would send her into a homicidal frenzy. She blamed that ride for her head ache.

She'd had fun though, and she'd laughed when Snow White had asked Andrew for a dance. He'd been up for it, and he'd done well, and Amy had been in awe of her awesome dad for the next half hour, even asking if he was the King and Jessie was Queen, so she'd be a princess. Andrew had told her no, and she said it was okay, because he as obviously Prince Charming, so she'd be a princess one day.

Jessie rubbed her hands over her face, cringing as she felt how sweaty she was. She'd give anything to go back to the hotel and relax, but she couldn't see Amy being very pleased if that happened. She was pleasantly surprised when halfway through her next speech about how obviously a princess she was, Amy gave an enormous yawn. Andrew looked like someone had lifted a lead weight off of him when she climbed onto his lap and said she felt sleepy.

So, they made their way back to the hotel, past the different lands and the massive castle and what felt like hundreds of gift shops. Jessie held Amy's hand and gazed into the shops, wondering if the bottle of wine in her fridge would look better if the stopper had mouse ears on it.

It was when all the TVs flickered to static that her blood froze in her veins. A murmur echoed from every screen, the same words repeated over and over,

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?" **

Amy was walking quickly enough. Jessie picked her up without a word and strode towards the exit. She heard Andrew huffing behind her.

"Jessie, wait up!" she ignored him, her feet pounding the tarmac as she headed for the exit.

* * *

"You've been acting strangely Jess," Andrew said over dinner. Amy was practically asleep in her plate of spaghetti and Jessie was poking at her beef burger.

"I'm fine," she said quietly. Andrew grabbed her hand.

"No, you're not. I don't know what's wrong with you, but you've been distant lately," he told her, his soulful brown eyes gazing into hers. She deliberately took a large bite from her burger and stared him down wordlessly. He sighed and started eating again.

"Mommy, I don't want this anymore, can I have yours?" Amy asked, swiping her fists tiredly across her eyes. Jessie ignored her.

"Jessie, just admit something's wrong, please?" Andrew half begged. "I know you hate doing that but you need to start or we won't be able to do anything about it." He pushed his plate away. Jessie did the same.

"I'm fine," she told him, "I'm putting Amy to bed now, you get the bill." Without another word she picked up her daughter and went back to the room.

Her phone rang as soon as she reached her door.

"Jessie, will you tell me what's wrong? For God's sake- you're acting like a child," she hung up on him. She put Amy to bed without a word and went back to the balcony. The wind had picked up, combing its fingers through her hair as she stared out at the darkening sky. She sank to her knees, leaning her head against the railing as the waves crashed on the beach.

She felt tired, more tired than when she'd not slept in three days. Her head pounded, her shoulders ached and her feet were on fire. The words that had been following her all day were there again, she could hear them coming from the TV.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"** they said hopefully. She pushed her head against the balcony rail.

"I'm surprised you lasted this long. Didn't think you actually had it in you," another voice said.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

"But then again, you had help didn't you. You'd never have survived this long n your own steam," it continued.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

"So you stole hers." It finished. Jessie stood up slowly, afraid to turn around. Someone was there. "So you're just going to stay there all night? I'm not leaving. You'll face me some time." It said.

"Go away," Jessie groaned. It laughed.

"That's it? 'Go away?' Get behind me Satan!" it mocked. "Too late. You've made this demon yourself." Jessie gripped the handrail until her knuckles went white. "Do you think Andrew's going to come and save you? Do you think he'll bust down the door and take me out and you'll live happily ever after? Oh wait; he'd need to be alive for that, wouldn't he?" Jessie fought back tears. "Maybe you think Hannah's going to come for you? Little baby sister to the rescue?" it jeered. "You didn't even try calling her today, did you? You didn't even think about her when you had something better, even if you knew it wasn't real,"

"Stop it," Jessie choked out.

"Do you know what the funny part of it is?" the thing behind her back said. "The kid is fine without you. Doesn't need you at all. How does that feel big sister? How does it feel to know the person you've spent your life protecting is fine by herself in the big bad world? Bet you feel worthless don't you? Bet you feel weak." She heard it take a step towards her. "I bet you feel like nothing."

"Leave me alone!" she shouted, blinking back tears. Pain lanced through her as the thing spoke.

"Make me," it laughed. "I'll give you a hint, crying at me doesn't work. There's one thing I want to know though. Why did you do it?" it hissed.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"** the TV said.

"She-" Jessie began,

"She trusted you!" the thing howled. "She helped you, saved you in the lightcycle races, told you how to get around the Grid and what did you do?"

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

"WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"I killed her!" Jessie screamed. The pain stabbed through her stomach and she fell to the floor. "I killed her,"

"And you told Hannah they didn't feel." It said, disgusted, "You tried to make her believe programs don't feel because if she believed it, maybe you could to! If she believed it, you might be able to forgive yourself, and if she ever found out what you did, she'd forgive you because she'd know they don't feel. You lied to her! You hurt her and you told her lies to make yourself feel better. How could you!" it shouted at her back. "You're hideous. I despise you, I loathe you."

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

"I didn't mean to," Jessie whispered. "I didn't know what I was doing,"

"How does that change anything?" it said. "How does that make it different? How does that make it better than the only reason you've survived so long in here is because of the energy you stole from her when you killed her?" It was close now, close enough to touch her. "How does it change the fact you put your hands on her and leeched the life from her? You didn't know what you were doing? You could have stopped!" it placed its hand around her neck and the pain was unbearable.

"I'm sorry!" she screamed. The hands dropped away.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

"You're sorry?" it said quietly. "Sorry?" the hands returned, squeezing hard at her throat. "You're sorry. You can't be sorry if you won't face what you've done." Jessie's world started to go dark. She felt the energy leaving her, the life being forced out of her and she made a choice. She put her hands on the floor and heaved herself around, looking the thing in the face. Green eyes and red hair met her, a body in a thick black suit with strips of light across it, and a vicious expression. It was like looking in a mirror. The other Jessie sneered.

"So you'll look at me now," it said. "So unrepentant you'll wait until the last seconds to face me." It backed off. "It doesn't matter. I'm done."

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

"You can listen to that before your time runs out." It told her, heading for the door.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

"She's great company." The door opened and shut, and it was gone. Jessie massaged her neck. She could barely breathe.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

The horizon was black and the water was swallowed by the gloom. Pinpricks in the inky darkness shone out at her.

"It's full of stars?" she whispered huskily. Even as she said it the spots of light struggled, fought and were overwhelmed. The beach was fading away, and the road and the pool and the trees disappeared. Pushing herself up on wobbly arms, she hunched over the balcony. As the black came at her, she hoped Hannah was okay. She wished she could escape, but she didn't know how, and the nothingness scared her more than anything she'd ever known. The wind was gone now.

"**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**

But the voice wasn't. She didn't even realised she'd let herself go over the edge until she was falling and was swallowed up by the encroaching shadows.

* * *

_Poor old Jessie, I'm very mean to her. I've been fighting with chapter for a while and I'd love to know if you think it turned out okay, so please do review. **~End of Line~**_


	12. A Little Less Conversation

Greetings Users! Well, here's another chapter for you and I hope you like it!

Thanks to all those who've reviewed, especially Sabi2, DarkPhoenis1191, TRONfanatic, Silvertail of Shoreclan & Redkora. Thanks so much guys, you really make my day.

**Disclaimer: I own nothing but the things I own, this concept, alas, not being one of them.**

* * *

_The wind was gone now. _

"_**We're friends, aren't we Jess?"**_

_But the voice wasn't. She didn't even realised she'd let herself go over the edge until she was falling and was swallowed up by the encroaching shadows._

* * *

The first thing Hannah knew was that she was being shaken hard. The world rocked and juddered underneath her and the hands trying to wake her up were freezing cold. She swiped them away and swung herself up, only to be hauled sideways before she got her bearings.

"Careful!" the person hissed. "We've got to move- now," the hands found their way under her arms and pulled her up. The world got darker again. A terrible screaming cry tore through the air and Hannah snapped back to reality with a jolt. She was hiding behind a rock, an arm keeping her upright and out of sight. She looked around; the earth glinted and flickered, the dark world of the Grid surrounding her again. She pressed her back against the wall, desperately trying not to panic.

"What the hell-"

"Not now," came the hushed voice and Hannah followed the arm holding her up, across the bicep, over the shoulder, along the collarbone, until-

"Tron!" she yelped, slamming her hand over her mouth in panic when the roaring pierced the air again. It wasn't as loud this time, but it didn't sound any further away. It wasn't painful either, more grating than anything, like an annoying headache.

"Shh," he said, glancing over the top of the rock and ducking down again. "It's still out there," Hannah curled up instinctively as the noise grew closer again, trying to shrink herself into a ball.

"What's going on? Shouldn't we try and kill it?" Hannah asked as quietly she could.

"Not without derezzing Jessie. She hasn't made it out yet." Hannah bit her lip.

"What happened? Where is she?" Tron looked out again and snapped back, shaking his head.

"She's inside it. Worms like that eat other programs; drain their energy to feed itself. It creates simulations for its victims to stop them escaping. We both got out intact- that hurt it; it's smaller now, but Jessie's still in there, feeding it."

"But killing it won't help her?"

"No. They're in parasitic symbiosis. Because she's connected to it, derezzing one would derezz both. If she can regain herself mentally she can escape, force it to regurgitate her like we did- but if she can't it'll just keep draining her until there's nothing left."

Hannah swore under her breath, desperately trying not to imagine the worm throwing up a bunch of Jessie coloured cubes. It didn't help.

"We can't wait for it to finish." Tron murmured. "If it consumes a User, I don't think any program will have a chance at stopping it." Tron's eyes were fixed on the hub on her back. "I can kill it now, but I need Flynn's disk."

"What? No!" Hannah hissed, trying to back away. Tron still had an arm around her and it held her fast. "Tron don't!"

"If I don't, it has the potential to destroy both of us," he said. She struggled in his grip.

"If Jessie makes it out, we'll finish it easy. We've just got to wait a little longer!" The roaring grew more intense again. Hannah cringed. "We've got to wait,"

"That's not going to be an option for much longer." Tron growled, his eyes narrowing as the ground around them started to tilt and tear itself apart, the weight of the worm on the fragile surface too much for the floor to bear. Hannah pushed her back into the slab and held on, the disks on her back digging into her spine.

"Be brave," she murmured to herself. She wouldn't back down from this. She wouldn't sacrifice Jessie for anything. "We're going to wait," she said decisively.

"It'll find us any second," Tron hissed, "How do you suggest we should defend ourselves if we can't fight back?"

"We can fight back," she said softly. "Just- just hurt it, don't kill it. We can buy Jessie some time." Tron shook his head.

"It won't work," he said.

"Then we'll find something that does," Hannah told him through gritted teeth. "I am not losing her again,"

"I know you have a strong bond with her but if she hasn't made it out by now, she won't make it out at all. We won't get another chance like this." He argued. "We don't have any choice,"

"We can trust her. She doesn't let me down, that's not who she is," Hannah said fervently. Tron huffed.

"She's only marginally less ineffective than you are."

"Screw you!" Hannah growled at him, fighting harder to get out of his grip. She didn't miss the look of bewilderment that flickered across his face. "Yeah, you heard me," she said with a hint of satisfaction. The worm screeched again and the ground shook harder.

"This isn't the time," he reached over and tried to grab the disk, but Hannah twisted out of the way. The roaring behind them intensified. "We've got to move now." He swiped at her back again and something clicked and pulled away. Tron had the disk. She reached over the snatch it back but only succeeded at grabbing the other side of the ring.

"Let go," she hissed. He held on and she felt her hands slipping.

"I won't," He tugged harder. "I'll fight for you, but you can't ask me to let that thing kill us both-" he gazed at her, steely and intimidating. She wanted to shrink back, but she told herself not to. It didn't do any good. The ground shifted again and her hands wrenched from the disk as they were thrown forward. The ground broke apart and tilted beneath their feet. The worm roared as it caught sight of them, its hideous body fragmented and clumsy- but still as deadly as it had been before. Hannah scrambled around, slicing her fingers open on the jagged surface, but she couldn't find anything to hold onto as she slipped down towards one of the gaping holes that wrenched themselves open, the sides of it sharp like teeth. The ground crumbled into the pit even as she slipped towards it.

"Help, help!" she yelled wildly. Tron could only watch her from his vantage point, still hanging onto the rock they'd hidden behind, as she fell towards the abyss. Then he had to move as the great worm reared up again, bent on his deresolution. He slid to the side and onto level ground as its beak struck the ground, sending another shudder down the slippery surface. He cast a tortured look back at Hannah as she screamed for him to help her. Then, he had to fight.

The beast flailed and jerked, its beak clicking and cracking as it dove down, trying not to swallow him this time, but to destroy him. He tried to run towards Hannah but its tail whipped around and caught him across the chest, stunning him and sending him sailing in the other direction. The worm turned back to him with a deliberate slowness as Tron pulled himself off of the floor. It's one remaining eye followed his movements as he activated both the disks and settled into a familiar stance against the enormous opponent.

He threw the disks with deadly precision at that same eye just as Hannah tumbled over the edge of the abyss.

Tron backed off, the two disks returning to his hands. The air was silent and still, the worm frozen with its dreadful mouth open to the air, its body shuddering and flickering, the orange lights going out one by one. The top began to crumble, eroding itself like sand in a storm, tearing itself apart until, finally, it collapsed in on itself, the ground shaking one last time in its death throes. Then it was gone and all was still again. He watched the remains for a second, half afraid it would reform and the battle would begin again but it stayed where it was, dead as the dust it had turned into.

An altogether different fear settled on him when he turned, tried to locate Hannah and couldn't.

Scanning the area, he felt something like panic when he couldn't find her. He started towards the edge of the pit, trying to remember where she'd been when he'd last seen her.

"Hannah!" He shouted.

"Over here!" she screamed back wildly, "Please, I can't hold on!" He ran as fast as his code would let him and skidded towards the crevice, looking for her. She was hanging just over the lip of the gorge, her hands wrapped around the disk she'd jammed into the side of the wall with all of her might. Her eyes were panicked. "Help me!" she yelped. He reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, hoisting her up easily and putting her on the now settled ground. She bent over the edge, shuddered into the blackness and plucked her disk from the wall, her breath coming in huge gasps.

"Are you alright?" he asked her kindly. She swallowed, trying to calm her breathing.

"Yeah, I'm okay." She said shakily, glancing at the pit again and sighing. "Guess I still need saving sometimes." She looked back towards the city. "What happened to the worm?" she said, suddenly breathless again. Tron looked away from her worried eyes.

"I destroyed it." He said simply. Hannah got onto her knees.

"And Jessie?" she asked. Tron looked back at her.

"I didn't see her get out," he said.

Hannah's eyes darkened. Her whole body seemed to swell with something, maybe rage, maybe worry, Tron couldn't tell. She pushed herself up, took a step and something snapped, the sound like a gunshot. Hannah slammed to the floor, her face completely white. Tron was by her in a second.

"What's wrong?" he looked her over but couldn't see the problem. "Are you broken?" She looked at him with panicked eyes and shook her head. Her mouth moved like she wanted to speak, but she couldn't find the words. She winced and swallowed.

"Tendon- in my leg," she gripped his arm and squeezed her eyes shut, her breathing heavy. "Old injury from school." She gasped in pain as she tried to move her leg and failed miserably. Tears dribbled down her face. "I can't- can't walk-" she bit out. Tron nodded and looked around. There was nothing around he could use to help her. She squeezed his arm again, the tears leaking faster from her eyes. "Jessie!" she yelped, looking him in the eye. He nodded and picked her up, slinging her over his shoulder in a fireman's lift. Holding her waist, he hurried back to the remains of the worm and put her down gently. She wiped the tears from her face and with a soft hiccup she began laughing bitterly.

"Supposed to- save myself now," she whimpered, grinning gingerly, her lips deep red on her pale face. Tron knelt by her and put his arms around her, like she'd done to him when he'd found out what had happened to Flynn.

"You already did," He got up and looked at the enormous mess of pixels the worm has left as its carcass. Jessie might be in there somewhere, he knew, so he waded in and started searching, digging through the pile for anything that looked like red hair or white circuits.

"So you killed it," Hannah managed. "You're pretty - good,"

"I'm good with one disk. I'm better with two," he observed, digging deeper.

"Why don't you have two all the time?" she asked. He looked back at her. She was sweating and shaking now.

"Bad memories," he commented and was silent, concentrating on the task at hand. Hannah watched him, but he didn't say anything else.

"You're gonna- gonna to have to tell me that story sometime," she said vaguely.

"Perhaps," he said, hoping she would be like Flynn could be sometimes, so consumed by one pursuit he'd often forget he'd asked awkward questions.

The minutes went by at a crawl.

Tron was up to his knees in the heaps of broken worm. He keep sifting until he got to the centre of the mess and then he dug further, pushing tirelessly on until he found something and pulled. A hand, an arm and a head of red hair came to the surface. He gave a sigh of relief.

"I've got her!" he yelled back to Hannah. He didn't wait for a response as he grabbed Jessie under the arms and hauled her out. She had cuts on her face, the blood as red as her hair and she was unconscious, her circuits dim. He felt around her breastplate for the energy she'd kept stored there and, finding it, he unstoppered the little bottle and tipped the contents into her mouth. Her circuits got brighter almost immediately but she didn't wake. Her breathing was less laboured, and he thought she might be sleeping. Placing her arms around his neck, he put a hand under her knees and lifted her up, carrying her out of the remains and towards Hannah. Hannah was still awake, her hands balled in fists and her face contorted the pain. She opened her eyes when she heard his footsteps and her expression softened as Jessie was laid beside her. She reached out and brushed Jessie's hair from her face, a smiling a tiny little smile.

She lost consciousness then, her arm slumping to the ground, her hands still touching Jessie's skin. Tron sat beside them, and the world was quiet aside from two users breathing softly. He closed his eyes too and thought of the last time he'd been comforted by that sound. The air was still and the virus was defeated, so he allowed himself the indulgence of a memory before the girls woke up and they'd have to figure out their next move.

* * *

And that's all for today, tune in next week for thrill, spills and the next to penultimate chapter of TRON:Absolution!

PS: As always, my offer stands, you review mine (Please be logged in when you drop by too!) and I'll review yours. If you're anything like me, that's an offer you don't want to miss out on! **~End of Line~**


	13. Misplaced

Greetings users! A new chapter is upon us, oh boy! A special thanks to redkora, silvertail of shoreclan and TRONfanatic for their kind reviews last week, you made my day again! **Disclaimer: I still own nothing but the OCs**

* * *

_Tron sat beside them, and the world was quiet aside from two users breathing softly. He closed his eyes too and thought of the last time he'd been comforted by that sound. The air was still and the virus was defeated, so he allowed himself the indulgence of a memory before the girls woke up and they'd have to figure out their next move._

* * *

Jessie woke up with a jolt, her wide eyes taking in her surroundings. She huffed and swore loudly, pushing herself up on her elbows.

"I'm back here again?" She looked out into the gloom and winced as the cramps set in. "Feel like I've just ran a damn marathon," she groused.

"I'm not surprised." She turned around so fast she thought she'd given herself whiplash. Tron was sat next to Hannah, looking at her calmly, Flynn's disk in his hands.

"What happened?" she asked. It was quiet, like when they'd first come to the Grid. Nothing moved but the rolling clouds.

"The worm tried to destroy us." He said simply, "So I destroyed it first." He twirled the disk between his palms.

"And the dream?" she asked softly. Her hands felt down to her belly, folding across the puckered scar. Her suit didn't cover it, the armour ending under her ribs and starting again at her waist. It was still as pale as ever, the scar stretching from her hip to her stomach. Tron watched her with calculating eyes.

"Just a dream – a simulation made to keep you from fighting it as it drained you." She sighed and curled her knees to her chest.

"I'm glad you're not dead," she said quietly.

"Why?" he asked. She frowned, but he seemed genuinely curious. Jessie shrugged, sitting her chin on her knees.

"Because I am,"

"That's illogical," he said warily.

"Users are," Jessie countered. The silence hung in the air for a while. "So, I guess Hannah hasn't woken up yet," she glanced down at her sister. She looked terrible, her short hair plastered to her face with sweat and her skin white as a sheet. Tron stopped spinning the disk.

"No, she has." He frowned for a moment. "What happened to her leg at school?" Jessie faltered.

"What? What does that have to do with anything?" She looked down at her sister's face and the pieces fell into place. "It happened again, didn't it?"She swore under her breath and shuffled to Hannah's side, laying her head in her lap. "She's going to be out of it for a while."

"What's wrong with her?" Tron inched closer, worry etched on his face. Jessie sighed.

"It's her tendon. She was a hockey player in school, and she was good, really good." She ran her fingers through Hannah's hair. "Then one day in practise, she got clipped by one of the hockey sticks and her Achilles tendon just snapped. She spent six months in a wheel chair. Once she'd healed up, the doctor said she'd probably be fine, but not to overexert herself." She looked up at the Grid, its sharp, torn surfaces, the dark foreboding clouds and the city blinking like a lighthouse in the distance. "She didn't have much of a choice once we got stuck in this place."

"What does she need?" Tron asked. Jessie shook her head.

"There's nothing here that can help her. She needs a wheelchair again, and a bandage- she needs doctor." She looked at Tron with tired eyes. "She needs to get out of here; the sooner, the better." Tron nodded.

"We'll get to the portal. I don't know how we'll do it, or if it'll be open or not, but we'll try," Jessie nodded and put Hannah back down as gently as she could.

"I'm going to try and build us something to get over the sea. Can you stay with Hannah?" She held out her hand for Flynn's disk.

"I'll protect her." He handed it over easily, gazing at the fragile girl.

"You fight for the users," Jessie said with a small smile. "I would expect anything less of you." She turned away and walked for a while, close enough that she could still see them but far enough away that she felt alone with her thoughts.

She activated the disk and contemplated what she could create. The ghost of a little girl with long red hair floated across her memory. She put her in the back of her mind. Maybe one day- she thought, but not today, Amy.

* * *

Tron was watching Hannah breathe. From what Jessie had told him, it didn't sound like Hannah was dying, but he didn't want to take a chance. The weight of the User he'd failed before was still on his shoulders and as far as he was concerned, it always would be. His memory was fragmented in places and gone completely in others, but he knew well enough what he'd become under CLU's control. So, he was attentive.

The minutes drifted by and Tron wondered what he should do. There was nothing he could do to protect Hannah from her own body. He couldn't fight that battle for her. Maybe he could help some other way? Jessie had run her fingers through Hannah's short hair; he assumed it was comforting to users. He tried it, his fingers shifting clumsily through her tangled hair until they got caught on a knot. Hannah flinched when he tried to pull his fingers free, so he left them there. He didn't want to hurt her.

More time trickled past.

He hated being useless. He was built to move and hunt and fight – to protect. He wasn't good at much else. What few social skills he'd picked up from Flynn felt rusty and he knew Jessie didn't exactly have a high opinion of him; only Hannah seemed to think of him like a friend.

He wondered, in a vague, user-ish sort of way, what he felt about Hannah.

She annoyed him, he knew that. She was incapable of doing almost anything without help. On the other hand, she was braver than she thought she was. She'd been afraid for a long time, and seemed to have acclimatised to the constant threat of her deresolution quite well, all things being considered – and being a program, by proxy things he did tend to consider practically everything.

He liked her. That one kind of crept up on him. He hadn't liked her at all at first, but now he definitely did. She was kind, and cared about both users and programs- she might even have been beautiful when she'd commanded him to wait when they were tackling the worm.

Maybe she reminded him a little bit of Yori. Yori had been kind too, and brave, even if she couldn't fight beside him. He'd needed her, and Flynn told him it was because he loved her, and maybe it was. Did he love Hannah too? Was it the same type of thing? He definitely felt the need to protect her more than he had a user like Flynn.

She hitched a little in her sleep. Tron untangled his fingers as gently as her could from her hair. Her face was damp and completely white. He knew what pain was, or what he computed it to be- was it the same thing users felt? When he looked at her, he didn't think they were the same thing at all. She seemed more – broken, like he had been when his code had been corrupted. He wished there were a quick way to fix users like programs could be fixed.

Her breathing changed, he processed it immediately. Her chest rose and fell more erratically, her face creased in pain.

"Hannah," he didn't know what to say to her, so he just said her name. Her eyes snapped open but didn't focus. She sobbed, her hands reaching half-heartedly towards her leg. "It's alright," he said. "It'll be alright," he said, even though he didn't know that at all. He thought to himself the portal would be closed and all this would be for nothing. It only stayed open for the user equivalent of eight hours, and they'd been in the machine for days now. They didn't have a hope, but he'd decided he wouldn't say anything. Despite what Jessie thought he could feel quite acutely.

Hannah blinked rapidly, trying to clear the excess fluid from her eyes. He felt a little lighter when she found his face and quirked her lips up in the tiniest smile he'd ever seen. She patted along the floor until she found his hand, which she squeezed hard.

"'Hello," she murmured, trying to sit up awkwardly on one elbow. Her leg dragged limply across the floor and she winced, her grip on Tron's hand getting harder. She was still as a statue for a while, trying to gather the will to move and sit up even though the pain was nearly unbearable. She hauled herself up, lost consciousness and fell down again.

Tron caught her when she flopped forwards. She collapsed onto him, her cheek resting just under the four little lights in his chest plate. He picked her up and shifted her around so she was sitting against him, her back against his chest and her head leaning on his shoulder.

He barely noticed that he'd taken her hand again as soon as they'd settled down. He realised after a while as his thumb had been trailing little circles over the back of her hand. He didn't stop, or let her go. It just seemed like the thing to do. His other arm ended up around her waist. He couldn't think of a better place for it.

He could have been there for hours, or days, idling with Hannah in his arms. He only looked up from her when he heard a set of loud stomping footsteps coming in his direction.

"I've been at this for hours," Jessie said as she slumped to the floor, defeated.

"What's wrong?" he asked. Jessie eyed the arm settled on Hannah's waist critically, but didn't say anything.

"I can't make it work." she said moodily, "I made something earlier, those little bottles. They just kind of appeared when I wanted them to, but this? I don't know anything about aircraft, or light whatevers - I don't know how things work in here." She ran her hands through her hair. "I can't do it," Tron felt a stab of annoyance. It just wasn't right. Flynn would have been able to make something in a heartbeat.

"Have you tried a boat?" He asked. Jessie flinched.

"Do you think I'm retarded? Of course I've tried to make a boat, but this damn disk must be broken!" she tossed it to the ground angrily. "Nothing works," she ran her hair through her hands, not even noticing when the strands started falling to the floor. Tron let go of Hannah's hand to retrieve the disk and Jessie eyed the pair. Tron watched her right back.

"What?" he asked unflinchingly. Jessie let her hair go.

"Don't give me 'what'. You're holding my sister," she said imperiously. Tron frowned.

"She wanted to sit up. Why are you angry?" he instinctively held onto Hannah a little tighter.

"Don't you think that's a bit intimate?" She stood up and started pacing. "If she wakes up like that you're going to give her ideas."

"Such as?" he retorted.

"Like you're interested in her!" she ground out, scowling.

"But she is interesting," Tron replied. Jessie's eye twitched a little.

"Oh, like you'd understand." She hissed. "You're just a program." She turned around, like she wanted to storm off, but she didn't. Maybe, Tron thought, she realised she had nowhere to go. Instead she paced some more, almost spinning in circles. Her hands wound their way into her hair again and finally she tramped back, her eyes blazing.

Tron just looked at her.

"Well?" she cried. "Aren't you going to move?" He shook his head.

"I don't see why I have to," He told her.

"Don't you tell me you're not going to listen to me. You have to, I'm a user!" she stamped her foot down, her entire body trembling. Tron just watched her impassively.

"I'm doing this to help Hannah," he said calmly. "She wanted to sit up, so I'm helping her," Jessie's hands balled into fists.

"Stop acting like you care!" she yelled, the tendons in her neck arching.

"Stop acting like I don't," he snapped. He kept still, his arms never leaving Hannah's body. "I understand, you don't think programs have emotions. You've made that clear enough. You think I don't get frustrated, that I don't know what fear is, that I can't grieve for a friend- you think I don't want to help Hannah when she's hurt because I don't want her to be pain." He mustered all the authority he had, looked her in the eye and said, "And you're wrong. I can feel everything, just like users do. Just because you don't believe it doesn't mean it's not true. I can say one thing for certain and that's that right now, I hate you." He shocked himself saying that, but not nearly as much what came next.

"If it wasn't for Hannah, I would leave you to find your own way out. I would disregard my reason for _existing_ to get away from you."

Jessie trembled. She moved her jaw like she was going to protest, but the words didn't come and she couldn't stop shaking. It spread through her body like ripple, starting with her knees, up to her arms and chest until she crumpled like a house of cards, her head in her hands. Tron thought she'd say something, tell him he was wrong and that she was taking Hannah and leaving without him. He thought she'd fight back but she didn't. She just sat in a shuddering heap on the floor, utterly crushed.

His hand found Hannah's again and he rubbed the little circles over it with his thumb.

"I want to hold her," Jessie said eventually. Her eyes were bloodshot and her face had gone as red as her hair.

"It'll hurt her to move," Tron said and Jessie sank back into her thoughts.

They stayed like that until Hannah stirred again. As soon as her eyes opened her face screwed up in pain.

"No luck?" she surmised, seeing Jessie huddled by herself on the floor.

"No," came the muffled reply. Tron gave Hannah a little squeeze.

"How are you?" he asked. She grimaced.

"In crippling pain." She said shortly. She was still sweating. "What happened to the plane idea?" She squeezed Tron's hand tightly as the stabbing pain ripped through her. Jessie looked up.

"I couldn't make it work. I'm so sorry," her face was still red. Hannah nodded.

"Don't beat yourself up about it. It's not like this place has an instruction manual." She winced and swore quietly.

"I'm so sorry," Jessie repeated.

"It's alright, I don't blame you." she told her. She looked up at Tron. "You don't blame her either, do you." She said. Tron shook his head.

"Not if you don't," he lied. Satisfied, Hannah settled into his chest.

"Do we have a back-up plan? Any other ideas?"

"No," Jessie said sullenly. Tron shook his head.

"No, I don't."

"Oh," Hannah said, what little colour there was in her face draining to nothing. "Right." She spotted Flynn's disk beside Tron. "Can I have a go?" Jessie watched Tron carefully as he gave Hannah the disk without a word. She activated it and put it in her lap, placed her hands on the ground and closed her eyes.

"What are you doing?" Jessie asked dourly. Hannah didn't move.

"I'm telling it what I want it to do," she said, her face twitching as her leg throbbed again. "Very precisely."

Tron watched as little tendrils of light wound their way from her hands, and the frame of something appeared. It started small and dim, but as the seconds ticked by it got bigger and sleeker and wider and brighter until, after a few minutes, a large winged craft stood on the floor. It had engines like a jet, three seats and a glass cockpit. Hannah gazed at it contently.

"Ah," she said vaguely. "Good." Then her eyes closed again and she wilted like a flower in Tron's arms. He jolted when she went limp, but she was still breathing. Jessie got up and walked over to the new light jet.

"I don't believe it," she said, awestruck. She reached out and touched it, almost surprised when it didn't disappear. Tron felt a warm feeling in his chest. He thought it was probably pride. He looked down at Hannah with a smile as he moved so he could pick her up. When she was safely tucked into his arms he took her over to her creation.

A working lightjet on her first try. Even Flynn would have been impressed with that.

Jessie got into the jet and sat in the back, her face still red. Tron wondered if she was ashamed. He put it out of his mind as he placed Hannah carefully in the co-pilots seat and climbed in himself, taking the controls. Without a word they took off, leaving the grid floor behind them and soaring through the air towards the open sea, and the portal that waited on the far horizon.

* * *

_Ah, the portal! Will it be open, will it be shut? What's going to happen to Hannah and will Jessie ever admit she's wrong? OH THE QUESTIONS!_

...

If you loved, liked it or hated it, drop me a line and say why, and I'll have a look at some of your work too and drop it a review. Bribery? Well, I'm not above it.

Next chapter is the last one. See you on the other side guys! **~End of Line~**


	14. Always and Never

**Greetings Users!** Here's the next chapter, submitted for your approval. I hope you enjoy the thrilling conclusion of TRON:ABSOLUTION!

As always, thanks to my fantastic reviewers for their input. I'd be a worse writer without you guys - you're the reason I've kept going.

**Disclaimer: Elementary my dear readers. I'm writing a fanfiction. It wouldn't be a fanfiction if I owned it, would it. So there you go.**

* * *

_Jessie got into the jet and sat in the back, her face still red. Tron wondered if she was ashamed. He put it out of his mind as he placed Hannah carefully in the co-pilots seat and climbed in himself, taking the controls. Without a word they took off, leaving the grid floor behind them and soaring through the air towards the portal._

* * *

Hannah knew time was passing. It felt strange, like she was watching a black and white movie of her own life. Disjointed images flickered in front of her eyes for a moment before fading back in the white hot haze of pain. There sensations too, mostly fleeting and chased away by the incessant, overhwelming throbbing.

The first time she woke up was to the sound of someone calling her name. It was a small noise, but it was insistent and she managed to force her eyes open, only to be confronted with darkness more severe than any night she'd ever known. It pressed itself around her, closing in like a smothering blanket. Her heart pounded, fluttering in a moment of absolute blinding panic, and she couldn't do anything but cry. Everything hurt.

The voice didn't stop. It told her everything would be alright, and like a child she totally trusted it. She liked the voice. The darkness fell away as a bright light wandered into her line of vision. She followed it up until she found a face to go with the voice that'd called her name.

"Hello," she managed, finding Tron's hand and holding on for dear life. Of course it was him. She grimaced through the pain, but it was meant to be a smile. Propping herself up on a shaky elbow, she tried to find more words. It was hard when everything was rushing around in her head, happiness and pain, hope and fear, a million different fragments of witty phrases she could use to either make him smile or confuse him completely. She didn't get a chance to say any of them because as soon as she sat up, her leg protested, insisting she join it on the floor and she was helpless not to obey.

It was a long time before she woke up again. It was a slower process this time. She heard voices, and footsteps, and the sound of Jessie being stubborn. She sat for a while, trying to process what was going on. For a start she wasn't lying down anymore, but she wasn't supporting herself either, and Jessie was sulking a few feet away, which left only one option. Tron was holding her, and he was very, very comfortable. Her leg still throbbed insistently, but it wasn't overwhelming. His thumb ghosted over the skin of her hand and she relaxed against his chest. Out of the corner of her eye, she spied a disk discarded on the floor.

"No luck?" she managed to say.

"No," Jessie didn't even move; her chin on her chest and her legs drawn up like a wall. Great time for a tantrum, Hannah thought to herself. It's not like she's-

"How are you?" Tron interrupted her train of thought, so she blurted out the rest of it anyway.

"In crippling pain," she winced as her leg demanded her attention. "What happened to the plane idea?" she asked, gripping Tron's hand like a vice. There was a dull ringing in her ears that she was sure was a signal she'd pass out again soon.

"I couldn't make it work. I'm so sorry," Jessie had a look on her face like the one thing she wanted to do was break down and cry, but she wouldn't. Hannah sighed. The amount of times Jessie had saved her, both on the Grid and in her life before; there was no way she could stay mad at her, even if she was being a big baby.

She was sure she said things after that, and they were probably great things well worth saying, but they went by in a haze. Her leg throbbed again, and the ringing got louder.

"You guys trying to make a lightjet?" said the noise. "That's pretty heavy stuff for your first try." Hannah agreed with it. She'd never even tried to make anything before; she didn't have a clue about what to do. She might as well have been trying to do a 5000 piece puzzle without any idea as to what the picture was meant to be. The noise hummed to itself for a little bit, like it'd lost its train of thought. "Well, I can give you a few pointers." It buzzed, "Here's what you need to do-"

And Hannah did as she was told. She activated the disk and felt around for the right code. It was somewhere close by, buried in the rubble, a lightjet ruined in some long lost war that she was able to put back together, with the instructions of the noise.

As the light faded and the jet was revealed, sleek and whole on the ground before them, Hannah smiled, a little bubble of pride filling her up.

"Ah," she said. "Good," The noise faded to nothing before she had time to wonder where it was coming from, but out of the corner of her eye she saw something fluttering away, like a little white butterfly.

Suddenly exhausted, she let her head fall back onto Tron's chest and she slept.

* * *

The black and white movie was playing again. Rocks flickered by on the sputtering film reel, lights rolled lazily over slow waves and a huge pillar in the distance got miles closer each time she blinked. Tron was at the helm of the lightjet, his intense eyes fixed on that tower. She couldn't see Jessie, but she could hear her, shuffling uncomfortably in the back seat.

They were finally going home. If she felt any better about it she thought she'd burst. No more constant threat of death, no more fighting, no more pain from a place that didn't know what morphine was- she couldn't wait. The pillar got closer and she was on the edge of sleep again when something hit her like a tonne of bricks.

If she left the Grid, she'd be leaving Tron behind. Suddenly she wasn't happy anymore.

She'd be leaving Tron behind here, in this horrible, dark, lonely place. She didn't know how many other programs were still hiding in the woodwork, or plastic, or whatever it was that the city was made of, but she hadn't met a single friendly face apart from him. The thought of him confronted by a horde of them, all chanting that terrible word,** deresolution**... she bit her lip, her heart sinking like a stone. What if he died? What if he went orange himself and turned into one of them? What if he killed them all and was left here completely alone?

There was no one taking care of the system. Tron had been all by himself before, but this was different, she knew he was there now, a real person, not just a faded face on a billboard. She groaned, remembering it. If she left him alone how could she ever forgive herself, especially when his face was plastered practically at eye level from her bedroom window?

"Tron," she said softly. She felt Jessie jump in the back; she obviously hadn't been expecting any conversation. Tron didn't flinch.

"Yes?" he replied.

"I'm a User, and I can come into your world, here in this computer," she said. "Could you come back with me, into mine?"

"Hannah! What the hell?" Jessie interjected angrily.

"I'm not sure," Tron answered, ignoring Jessie. "It's been tried once before, but I didn't see how it turned out. I believe it's possible though."

"Hannah, you are not thinking of taking him with us," Jessie exclaimed. "No way,"

"I said could," Hannah said defensively. "I just wanted to know if it could be done,"

"Yeah, so you could take your white knight back with you. Kid, you're transparent!" Jessie retorted.

"It's not like that," Hannah said miserably, her leg twinging. Jessie frowned.

"Trans-pa-rent," she repeated slowly, "look, we're just going to get ourselves home and then that's it; we're not coming near this place again, not ever."

"Speak for yourself," Hannah retorted.

"No way, you're not coming back to this place on your own, it's too dangerous. Besides, how do you think you're going to get up and down all those steps at Flynn's without me, huh? Unless you're going to cut someone else in on the deal." Jessie scoffed. Hannah let out a frustrated sigh.

"I guess you're right," she said meekly, staring at her hands. They were pale and shaking, but in a moment they were clenched into fists. "But I'll find a way somehow, even if you won't help me,"

"Oh for Gods sake!" Jessie spluttered. "Why would you even want to come back?"

"Why are you getting so angry about this?" Hannah dodged.

"Because you're being an idiot! We won't be coming back here, we can't take him with us and we won't be taking him with us." Jessie huffed. "Haven't you ever seen Stardust?"

"No," Hannah frowned. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Look, it's a book about a guy who found a star, and it was a person," she started.

"Still not seeing what that has to do with us," Hannah interrupted.

"Lemme finish. Anyway, there was this wall. He wanted to take the star over the wall, back to his world and do you know what would happen if he took her there?"

"What?" Hannah asked. He got the feeling she wouldn't like the answer.

"It wouldn't be a person anymore, just a hunk of rock. What if Tron got out of the computer and turned into a pile of circuits or something?" She sighed, "That's not even getting into the logistics of it. You take him out of the system, what then? He doesn't have a name, an age – and what if he doesn't age at all- he doesn't have a social security number or a passport. Do you get where I'm going with this?"

"But I-"

"Don't want him to be alone," Jessie finished.

"You're going to tell me he doesn't have feelings again?" Hannah sniped. Jessie shrank back a bit.

"That's not the issue," she said defensively. "But think about this if you're so worried about his feelings. What's a cage? Is it being by yourself in a place like this, or is it being trapped in a room in a world you can never explore?"

The cockpit was silent after that. Tron watched Hannah out of the corner of his eye as she slumped back into her chair, defeated. He didn't know which cage would be worse. He hated this system, the failure that he, Flynn and CLU had made and destroyed, but would the User world be any better? He'd talked to Flynn many times about it, curious as to what Users did when they weren't creating. Flynn had been quiet for a while the first time he'd asked, wondering how best to describe it to a program. 'Chaotic' was the word he'd eventually used.

"_Well,"_ Flynn had said. _"It's certainly different to this place. There are some similarities, Users have jobs, tasks they have to do, just like programs, but for the most part it's a huge mess of people trying to do whatever it looks like they should be doing."_

He'd told him other things, about how some Users were good, others were bad and most of them were both, about life, death and love. Tron found himself agreeing with Flynn though, it did sound chaotic, so much so that CLU had made that world his target after taming the Grid.

In fact, CLU had been sure he could do it, transfer a program from the Grid to the User world. He'd been willing to play his hand, to cross over with his army, because he was so sure. And what had become of Quorra, the little ISO? The more he thought about it the more he was sure that it was at least possible he could leave.

He swept the lightjet around a tower of rock, the portal creeping closer every second. But then, that was assuming that the portal was open at all.

* * *

They landed gently on a flat outcrop near the top of the pillar. Tron lifted Hannah out of the craft and she hung her arms weakly around his shoulders, her head resting in the crook of his neck. He was about to head off towards the stairs when he heard Jessie let out a low whistle.

"Have you seen this?" she called out. Tron made his way over, careful not to jolt the fragile girl in his arms. It didn't take him long to see what Jessie was talking about. Just a few feet away and barely hidden by a glassy looking boulder was another lightjet, larger and hugely damaged. Tron faltered, remembering the people who'd used it, and how he had been Rinzler one moment and Tron the next, fighting for control in his own body. Mostly he remembered the disappointment on Flynn's face, the last time he'd ever seen him.

"Tron?" Hannah asked from his arms. Her breath tickled his ear and he snapped out of the memory.

"It's the lightjet Flynn, Sam and Quorra used to escape," he said. He held Hannah a little tighter and turned away from the jet, walking towards the stairs again.

"Do you remember that I told you I wanted to hear your story sometime?" she asked quietly. Tron nodded. "We've got time,"

"No, we don't," he told her, and she flinched in his arms. "It's not a good story." He continued. Hannah leant into him again as they started up the steps.

"Another time," she said agreeably. Tron didn't reply.

They climbed for less than ten minutes. The steep steps levelled out to a platform and then to the remains of a bridge. Hannah remembered it from the recording they'd watched on Flynn's disk. This was when Flynn and CLU had faced off, and ultimately destroyed each other. That wasn't the first thing on her mind though.

"Hey, Tron, what's this portal supposed to look like?" Jessie said lowly. Tron looked from her to the end of the platform.

"It's like a pillar of light, wide enough to hold about two people. That's what transmits the data from this world to the User world." He said. Hannah looked around and saw Jessie pacing to the end of the ruined bridge and back.

"Call me blind, but I'm not seeing one of those around here." She said. Hannah bit her lip. Tron walked to the edge of the bridge and put Hannah down gently. Standing next the red headed woman, he said,

"That's because it's not there. The portal is closed."

He should have expected what happened next. As he turned towards Hannah, Jessie punched him in the face. He stumbled back, eyes widening as he nearly lost his balance and tumbled over the edge of the bridge. Jessie grabbed hold of him and screamed wildly in his face, swinging him around as she punched him again.

"Jessie stop!" Hannah yelled from the floor, pushing herself onto her front and lifting herself onto her forearms. "JESSIE!" but Jessie wasn't stopping. She kept hitting him and Tron let her.

"What am I meant to do now!" she screamed at him, spit flying from her mouth. "How the hell do we get home?" She kicked him in the chest, wobbling as she landed back on one foot. Tron took his chance and swept her legs out from under her, slamming her to the floor. He pushed his arm down on her chest so she couldn't get up and got so close to her that they were almost nose to nose.

"You're going to have to stay. The portal is closed." He growled. "There's no way to open it from this side. You're stuck here and you're going to have to deal with it." He let go and she slapped at him, tears dripping from her eyes.

"Why can't I go home?" she sobbed. Tron didn't answer her. He stood up and offered her his hand.

"You ran out of time. Without knowing there was a limit on how long you had to escape, you never had a chance." Jessie smacked his hand away.

"So why did you let us think we did?" she demanded, her face like thunder. "Why did you tell us there was a hope in hell when there wasn't?"

"It wouldn't have stopped you coming here if I did. You'd just have had another reason to tell Hannah not to associate with me." He tried to help her again, but Jessie knocked his hand away and got up by herself. Drawing herself up, she stood before him and looked him dead in the eye.

"You remember what you told me before, that you hate me? Consider it mutual. Hannah wants you to stick around then fine, you stay with her, because hell will freeze over before I spend any time with you that I don't have to." She stormed down the bridge towards Hannah.

"You had a bit of a blow out back there," Hannah said with frown. Jessie didn't answer. "He didn't deserve that."

"Don't you tell me what to do!" Jessie yelled. Hannah rolled onto her back and looked up at her sister.

"I didn't deserve that either," she hissed. Jessie turned away, but the only thing back that way was Tron. Cursing under her breath she sat down next to Hannah, swinging her legs over the side of the ruined bridge.

They sat in silence, gazing into the darkness.

"Sorry," she said eventually. Hannah looked back at her.

"I'll bet you are," she said grumpily. "It's not anyone's fault this happened, so stop acting like everyone's out to get you." Settling her hands on her stomach, she huffed in the air. "You're not to only one stuck in a computer for all time."

"I wonder if Mom and Dad know we're missing yet." Jessie said, running her hands through her hair. Hannah sighed.

"I don't know. That was the first thing I wanted to do when we got back. I wanted to see them,"

"So did I Han. Dad would know what to say, and Mom would be there to comfort us, and she'd stroke my hair," her finger wound into the flame red strands, "and when you got your new wheelchair Dad would wheel you around the block as fast as he could and you'd pretend like it was a rollercoaster, like we did last time." She started pulling on her hair, ripping it out by the roots.

"Jessie, stop," Hannah reached over and took hold of Jessie's arm. "Please, don't, you're hurting yourself." Jessie's hand sank into her lap and she started to cry.

"Hannah, look where we are because of me." She wept.

"I know, it's not like I'm not still mad about that either. Just don't give up. Think about it, we'll be ok. We've got Flynn's disk, we can make ourselves a house, with a pool and everything. You're good at this stuff, we'll learn as we go along."

"But we'll never get home," Jessie said, the tears still falling down her face. Hannah swallowed her own hopeless thoughts and smiled.

"Sure we will. Someone else is bound to find this place, like Sam Flynn or something; Tron said he'd been here before. When they come through the portal, we'll see it open, hop on the lightjet and bam, we'll be home free! I won't even make you pay that stupid $400."

"Seriously?" Jessie said, "That's your idea? Turn this place into Cribs until someone comes through and we hitch a ride out?"

"Why not? Hell we get stuck here long enough and we might get ambitious!" Hannah said with a bitter laugh. "Think less cribs, more Simcity,"

"But I was rubbish at that game. Thinking ahead's not my strong point," Jessie groused. She'd stopped crying though.

"I can plan then. You make stuff, I put it places; we can make the city nice again. I'm thinking water features, high rise buildings and something cultural; like a light up Eiffel tower." She made a triangle with her arms. Jessie burst out laughing.

"And a bit like Venice, with canals and gondolas and stuff," she joked, wiping at her face and sniffling.

"Why not? I'm not going to be satisfied until we've tried all this stuff. We've got all the time in the world," Hannah, the smile on her face a little wider.

Jessie stopped laughing.

"We do, don't we. We might have years in here,"

"Yeah," Hannah agreed. "But what else can we do?"

"I don't know," Jessie pulled herself up. "I'm going to go back to the jet. I need some time alone, just to think about things."

"Alright," Hannah said, "But don't do anything stupid, like pulling all your hair out." She said seriously. Jessie shook her head.

"I won't, promise." She looked back towards the steps. "Do you still need him to carry you?" Jessie asked. Hannah nodded.

"Yeah. I won't be able to put any weight on this damned leg for weeks," she complained.

"You know I'd carry you," Jessie started.

"It's okay." Hannah looked down at her hands. "I'm a bit on the heavy side, that's just how it is." They both looked towards the dark space where the portal was meant to be. There was a pregnant pause, the air thick with word neither woman would say.

"I'm going back down now. I'll see you in a bit," Jessie said finally.

"Okay. I'll see you." Hannah replied, and she watched Jessie until she disappeared down the stairs. Tron watched her go too before coming to join Hannah.

"Shall we go back?" he asked, going to pick her up again. Hannah held up a hand and stopped him.

"No, let's leave it for a bit." She said, "Could you hold me again? I want to sit up," She looked up at him with hopeful eyes.

"Sure," He sat next to her and pulled her upright. She shuffled back into his arms and he wrapped them around her. She relaxed, closing her eyes and letting the nothingness around her feel like peace.

"You're going to stay with us, right?" Hannah asked quietly. Tron nodded against her shoulder.

"My primary imperative is to fight for the Users. I couldn't leave you any more than you could fly." Hannah stiffened slightly.

"If you're only staying because you think you have to, you can leave, I'm not stopping you. I've got Jessie, she can protect me. You can go if you want."

Tron found himself smiling into her hair. Programs and Users might be similar in many ways, but to offer him a choice like that? That was something only a User would ever do. It was an option he'd never have considered asking her for, but she'd given it to him anyway. Two could play that game.

"Do you want me to?" he asked back.

"No," Hannah said quickly, grabbing hold of his arms and holding them tighter around her. "I want you to stay." She swallowed dryly. "I want that very much," Her leg throbbed and she whimpered a little. She managed to shift in his arms so she was facing him and she held onto him tight. He hugged her back.

"Then I'll stay. That's what I want to do," He told her firmly. She gave him a squeeze, pulled back and kissed him lightly on the cheek. Tron paused for a second. He'd only ever kissed someone on the mouth before. Hannah looked shyly at him, her blue eyes shining with the glow from his suit. It was more than just something he'd done before. It was something he wanted to do again. So he did.

* * *

**~THE END~**

**...**

Or is it?


	15. Epilogue

**Epilogue**

_6 months later_

"What are we doing out here?" Tron asked. Hannah put a finger to her lips as she guided the lightjet towards the Outlands.

"It's a surprise, I can't tell you," she giggled.

"I don't see why not. I'll find out in a microcycle anyway." He huffed. Hannah imitated his serious expression for as long as she was able to without cracking up laughing.

"Come on, we're here now, look sharp," she ribbed as she brought the jet down for a bumpy landing. She hissed as her leg protested the motion and Tron put his hand over hers.

"I don't care what you say, I'm flying us back this time." He told her. She waved him off.

"Just help me out of here so I can show you this!"

In a few moments they were out of the jet and Hannah had rezzed her new wheelchair in existence. It rolled easily along the rocky terrain, keeping pace with Tron's long strides as they made their way towards her surprise. She couldn't keep the wide grin off of her face.

It didn't take long before they turned the corner and Tron came face to face with what she'd made. His jaw dropped as he looked over what had once been raw, barren code and saw a field of crystal flowers, each one emitting a soft glow from its centre. It looked like there were thousands of them.

"You made all these?" he said, impressed. Hannah nodded, rolling towards a clear path that ran to the middle of the field.

"It was some job, but I wanted to do it," she said, still grinning. "Do you like it?" she asked imploringly.

"Of course," Tron said. It was one of the most incredible creations he'd ever seen, although one thing bugged him. "What is it?" he asked.

Hannah huffed, still smiling.

"It's a meadow full of flowers, silly." She stopped her chair in the middle of the field and used her arms to lower herself onto the floor. She unclipped one of the two disks on her back and activated it, motioning with her other hand for Tron to come over. "Actually, it's more than that," she said.

"It is?" Tron asked, sitting beside her.

"It's memorial garden." She told him. "Every flower here is a program we've derezzed because were couldn't retrieve their original coding, or an experiment gone wrong. There are flowers for my family, and the boyfriend Jessie lost. I wanted to make it because it helps me remember what's important." She reached out and touched the closest flower to her. "This is a flower for my mother," its light got brighter when she touched it.

"Why are you showing this to me?" Tron asked. Hannah blushed a little.

"I hoped you'd think it was nice. Well, and- I wondered if you wanted to add something to it. I know there are programs you've known, and people you've lost, or just can't see anymore. I thought you might like to help me make flowers for them," she asked. Tron looked around. It all seemed so unnecessary. He didn't need glowing flowers to remember his friends, his memories would last for as long as he did, clear and pristine. Still, it mean a lot to Hannah, and he liked to make her happy. He smiled at her.

"What do I do?" he asked.

"Hold my hand, and think of who you want to remember," Hannah instructed. He did, his thoughts full of the time he'd spent with Flynn, Yori and Ram, saving their first system. "Woah, one at a time," Hannah said. Tron grinned sheepishly, and thought only of Flynn.

The ground beneath him glowed brightly, tendrils of light reaching out and converging on a single spot. A flower spouted, tinted in blue and yellow with a bright light in the middle. It grew taller than all of the other flowers and opened its petals wide before stopping abruptly and hanging there, like glass suspended in the air.

"You've got some pretty powerful memories there," Hannah said with a smile. "You'll probably be able to see that all the way from the city." She looked back at her wheelchair. "Could you give me a hand?"

Tron lifted her back into the wheelchair and they set off from the field, Hannah's hand firmly clasped in her companions.

"I hope Jessie doesn't find out I'm gone." She said thoughtfully.

"You didn't tell her?" Tron said, mildly alarmed. Hannah laughed.

"Nope. She's overbearing enough, I don't want to tell her where to find me every hour of the day." She groaned dramatically.

"I just hope she doesn't derezzed any more buildings looking for you this time." Tron commented, shaking his head incredulously.

"Oh, that was once!"

As they left the field, neither one of them noticed a small band of white butterflies emerging from under the flowers. They danced around the bright new flower like moths by a flame before settling down under it, content to rest until their time came.

* * *

_Two years later_

From her office, Hannah could see the entire city, bustling with programs. Some were green, some were blue, some were white, some were even purple but none were orange. She sighed peacefully, wheeling her chair to the window and watching the bright metropolis.

Jessie was out there somewhere. She'd taken to disappearing for long periods, sometimes weeks at a time. Hannah didn't mind. It was how her sister coped with being trapped. Two years was a long time in an unforgiving place.

She was about to retire to her rooms when there was a frantic knocking on the door.

"Come in," Hannah called, wheeling herself forwards. A young looking woman burst in, her wide violet eyes glowing with intensity.

"News from Dumont Ma'am," she said with breathless exuberance. Hannah sat forward in her chair, adrenaline coursing through her veins.

"Dumont?" She whispered. The messenger nodded, dancing on her toes with excitement.

"New Users have just arrived, Dumont greeted them himself!" she jabbered, "They came out through Flynn's, just like you said they would."

"More users," she repeated. "That means-"

"The portal is open again!"

* * *

To Be Continued in the sequel!

_The thrilling saga continues in ~_

**THE LEGEND OF THE WHITE BUTTERFLIES**

**...**

**..**

**.**

**~End of Line~**


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